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Lot Essay
Following Isaak Levitan's death in 1900, Alexandre Benois remarked upon the artist's ability to capture the 'ineffable charm of our [Russia's] desolation, the grand sweep of our untrammelled spaces, the mournful celebration of Russian autumn and the enigmatic allure of Russian spring'. Perhaps more than any other Russian artist, Levitan is recognised for creating archetypal images of the rodina, or motherland; imbuing simple motifs such as the birch tree with an emotive or symbolic resonance that instantly communicates the drama of the Russian landscape. For Levitan, landscape painting was not merely the slavish recording of botanical detail and climatic conditions, but an attempt to express the inexplicable secrets of existence and suggest the spiritual and transcendental with a brushstroke.
Born in the small Jewish community of Kirbarty, Lithuania, Isaak Il'ich Levitan (1860-1900) was one of four children, two of whom went on to pursue careers as artists. His father, the son of a Rabbi, was an educated man with some knowledge of French and German, who moved his family to Moscow in the early 1870s in an attempt to find more lucrative work. During his lifetime, Levitan escaped neither the poverty nor the anti-Semitism experienced in his childhood; the latter was the cause of the mandate exiling Jews, including Levitan himself, from Moscow in 1879 and 1892.
In light of such obstacles, Levitan's enrolment at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture between 1873-1885 was unexpected and is testament to the young artist's exceptional talent. Due to extreme poverty, in 1896 the young student was spared the financial burden of course fees but the subsequent loss of both parents to illness worsened his situation. An orphan, Levitan was now dependent on the goodwill of friends, colleagues and patrons. The artist, M. V. Nesterov (1862-1942), a contemporary of Levitan and fellow student at the Moscow School, recalled in his memoirs that Levitan was as well-known amongst his peers for his poverty as he was for his talent. The self-contained force of personality - an innate characteristic of Levitan's paintings - was coupled with a resilience and industriousness which enabled Levitan to overcome his circumstances and place an intense focus on his work.
The importance of Levitan's contribution to Russian art is inextricably linked to the social, political and cultural context of the 19th Century. Levitan's studies coincided with an epoch of seismic change in the history of Russian culture, exacerbated by the abolition of serfdom in 1861. The 1850s had seen a growth in the demand for Russian subject-matter in literature, music and art, which stemmed from the desire to assert cultural independence and define national identity. This identity, suppressed by the programme of westernization implemented by Peter the Great, was now being rediscovered and to a certain extent created by literary giants such as Ivan Turgenev and Lev Tolstoi whose pan-Slavism reflected the rise in nationalistic feeling. Indeed, Sergei Diaghilev, the director of the Ballets Russes, would write later of the similarity between the prose of these writers and Levitan's paintings, saying that they shared 'the freshness of a Turgenev morning...[and] the scent of Tolstoy's hay harvest' (Mir iskusstva, 1901, vol. v, no. 1).
Inevitably, these cultural changes profoundly affected the genre of landscape painting. The popularity of idealised arrangements of nature provided by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude Lorraine (1604/5?-1682) so favoured by the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg dwindled, and appreciation of the more modest views of rural Russia such as those provided by Aleksei Venetsianov (1780-1847) began to grow. Levitan's decision to study at the Moscow School proved fortuitous. The Moscow School was considered the more progressive institution that advocated landscape painting and questioned the legitimacy of historical and religious subject-matter as paragons for artistic achievement. Furthermore, the Moscow School refused to adhere to the restrictive rigours of classical training extolled by the Academy and was generally considered as having a more experimental approach to study. The advent of the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) - an exhibiting society formed in 1871 in response to the stifling tradition of the Academy, and dedicated to promoting Russian art and themes - further signalled the stagnation of Russian academic art characterised by the mimicry of its western counterparts, heralding the emergence of a truly Russian school.
In as much as Levitan's oeuvre can be seen as manifestation of what Sergei Glagol' refers to as the 'search for Rus'' (S. Glagol' & I. Grabar', Isaak Il'ich Levitan, Moscow, 1912, p. 8), a phenomenon spawned by collective desire, it is also crucial to recognise the direct influence of his tutors at the Moscow School. Levitan flourished in this creative environment; his development encouraged by the tutelage of two prominent members of the Peredvizhniki, Vasilii Perov (1834-1882) and Aleksei Savrasov (1830-1897), and by the celebrated historical landscape artist Vasilii Polenov (1844-1927).
Levitan's early work, dating from the late 1870s, shows the significant influence of Savrasov's watery landscapes and their delicate lyricism, but the artist was already beginning to experiment with the genre as seen in 'Sokolniki Park, Autumn' (The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), executed in 1879. This canvas, depicting a solitary figure walking a leaf-strewn path which cuts through dense forest, introduces what was to become a recurring theme in his work; the interplay between mankind and nature. Furthermore, whilst Levitan continued to develop his own artistic credo and explore his thematic focus, his canvases from the the early 1880s show the influence of both European and Russian landscape artists, particularly Jean-Baptist-Camille Corot (1796-1875) and his tutor, the aforementioned Polenov. The latter introduced a new dimension to realist landscape with his fresh plein-air technique borrowed from the Barbizon School and bold contrasts of light and shade, coupled with splashes of pure colour.
'Marsh at evening', executed in 1882 during this diverse formative period, is vital to understanding how Levitan synthesised his various influences and is a remarkable example of his art in embryonic form. Painted during his residence in Ostankino when the artist was merely 22 years of age, the work was exhibited in 1882-83 along with four other canvases at the 5th Students' Exhibition at the Moscow School. Levitan invests this boundless panorama with a splendour and beauty seemingly at odds with the humble wasteland that it depicts. In so doing, Levitan shows the ability to render the ordinary poetic; a quality which anticipates his 'mood landscapes' depicting the Volga river for which he was to become so famous.
The painting also suggests Levitan's preoccupation with nature as an overwhelming and intimidating entity capable of absorbing mankind; an idea paralleled by the way the huge canvas draws the viewer into the scene. The simple constructions to the centre left of the composition, perhaps hayricks, appear to suggest a human presence; a device which Levitan used often, to solder an instant connection between the viewer and the forces of nature, and provide a scale by which to measure the magnitude of the scene depicted. In his later work, 'Hayricks at Dusk' (Fig. 1), executed in 1899, one can see how Levitan developed this device further in subsequent years; the delicate tonal palette, coupled with the simple composition highlights the beauty of a nature marked with mankind's imprint.
In the present painting harmony is created by the interaction of the two vast horizontals of sky and land, unified by the subtle gradations of orange and yellow present in the immense skyscape and echoed in the muddy pools below. The lack of aerial perspective serves to emphasise the two-dimensional expanse of canvas and by extension the spectacle of the scene itself. Despite the authenticity of the subject-matter, in line with Levitan's propensity to depict fields, ponds, hayricks and roads, this landscape is in fact a stylised and carefully orchestrated vision of nature. Although Levitan often used the plein-air technique for his initial studies, the larger canvases were always perfected in the studio. Like Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898), Levitan keenly observed the minutiae of nature but unlike his contemporary, he favoured a more impressionistic approach and evocative brushstroke.
'Marsh at evening' encourages the viewer to extend his gaze skyward, above the uprooted trees and deserted scrubland in the same way that Levitan's later masterpiece, 'Above eternal rest' (1893-4, The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) forces the viewer to contemplate the heavens. His devotion to adding a spiritual dimension to his work is revealed in a letter written to a friend in 1887, 'Can there be anything more tragic than the feeling of endless beauty in everything around you, to observe the hidden mysteries, to see God in everything and not to be able, realising your inadequacy, to express all these emotions adequately and fully?'. As evident in the present painting, Levitan clearly recognised the sublime in the untamed Russian landscape and despite his self-doubt was able to elevate the ordinary to monumental status.
'Marsh at evening' is an extraordinary testimony to the genius of Levitan who, in the words of Serge Diaghilev, 'succeeded in making us realise that we had lost the art of appreciating and seeing Russian scenery with Russian eyes; making us realise that he alone of Russian painters was able to depict the infinite charm of all those emotions which, in the morning coolness, or twilight's languorous warmth, in some remote north Russian village, each of us so blissfully feels. How much true understanding of Russian nature, worthy of Pushkin himself, we find in all his work; in his blue moonlit nights, his avenues of sleeping, century-old birches, which slowly lead one to that old house in the country, which all of us know so well...But one fact remains indubitable, and will never be forgotten. That very moment we leave the stifling atmosphere of the town for nature, we recall with gratitude the great lessons of this painter of Russian soil. Whether it be some village belfry, some tattered hedge or bluish lake, in all his work we see nature through him, by means of him, as he himself saw it and revealed it to others.' (S. Lifar, Serge Diaghilev - His life, his work, his legend, London, 1945, pp. 24-25)
Born in the small Jewish community of Kirbarty, Lithuania, Isaak Il'ich Levitan (1860-1900) was one of four children, two of whom went on to pursue careers as artists. His father, the son of a Rabbi, was an educated man with some knowledge of French and German, who moved his family to Moscow in the early 1870s in an attempt to find more lucrative work. During his lifetime, Levitan escaped neither the poverty nor the anti-Semitism experienced in his childhood; the latter was the cause of the mandate exiling Jews, including Levitan himself, from Moscow in 1879 and 1892.
In light of such obstacles, Levitan's enrolment at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture between 1873-1885 was unexpected and is testament to the young artist's exceptional talent. Due to extreme poverty, in 1896 the young student was spared the financial burden of course fees but the subsequent loss of both parents to illness worsened his situation. An orphan, Levitan was now dependent on the goodwill of friends, colleagues and patrons. The artist, M. V. Nesterov (1862-1942), a contemporary of Levitan and fellow student at the Moscow School, recalled in his memoirs that Levitan was as well-known amongst his peers for his poverty as he was for his talent. The self-contained force of personality - an innate characteristic of Levitan's paintings - was coupled with a resilience and industriousness which enabled Levitan to overcome his circumstances and place an intense focus on his work.
The importance of Levitan's contribution to Russian art is inextricably linked to the social, political and cultural context of the 19th Century. Levitan's studies coincided with an epoch of seismic change in the history of Russian culture, exacerbated by the abolition of serfdom in 1861. The 1850s had seen a growth in the demand for Russian subject-matter in literature, music and art, which stemmed from the desire to assert cultural independence and define national identity. This identity, suppressed by the programme of westernization implemented by Peter the Great, was now being rediscovered and to a certain extent created by literary giants such as Ivan Turgenev and Lev Tolstoi whose pan-Slavism reflected the rise in nationalistic feeling. Indeed, Sergei Diaghilev, the director of the Ballets Russes, would write later of the similarity between the prose of these writers and Levitan's paintings, saying that they shared 'the freshness of a Turgenev morning...[and] the scent of Tolstoy's hay harvest' (Mir iskusstva, 1901, vol. v, no. 1).
Inevitably, these cultural changes profoundly affected the genre of landscape painting. The popularity of idealised arrangements of nature provided by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) and Claude Lorraine (1604/5?-1682) so favoured by the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg dwindled, and appreciation of the more modest views of rural Russia such as those provided by Aleksei Venetsianov (1780-1847) began to grow. Levitan's decision to study at the Moscow School proved fortuitous. The Moscow School was considered the more progressive institution that advocated landscape painting and questioned the legitimacy of historical and religious subject-matter as paragons for artistic achievement. Furthermore, the Moscow School refused to adhere to the restrictive rigours of classical training extolled by the Academy and was generally considered as having a more experimental approach to study. The advent of the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) - an exhibiting society formed in 1871 in response to the stifling tradition of the Academy, and dedicated to promoting Russian art and themes - further signalled the stagnation of Russian academic art characterised by the mimicry of its western counterparts, heralding the emergence of a truly Russian school.
In as much as Levitan's oeuvre can be seen as manifestation of what Sergei Glagol' refers to as the 'search for Rus'' (S. Glagol' & I. Grabar', Isaak Il'ich Levitan, Moscow, 1912, p. 8), a phenomenon spawned by collective desire, it is also crucial to recognise the direct influence of his tutors at the Moscow School. Levitan flourished in this creative environment; his development encouraged by the tutelage of two prominent members of the Peredvizhniki, Vasilii Perov (1834-1882) and Aleksei Savrasov (1830-1897), and by the celebrated historical landscape artist Vasilii Polenov (1844-1927).
Levitan's early work, dating from the late 1870s, shows the significant influence of Savrasov's watery landscapes and their delicate lyricism, but the artist was already beginning to experiment with the genre as seen in 'Sokolniki Park, Autumn' (The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), executed in 1879. This canvas, depicting a solitary figure walking a leaf-strewn path which cuts through dense forest, introduces what was to become a recurring theme in his work; the interplay between mankind and nature. Furthermore, whilst Levitan continued to develop his own artistic credo and explore his thematic focus, his canvases from the the early 1880s show the influence of both European and Russian landscape artists, particularly Jean-Baptist-Camille Corot (1796-1875) and his tutor, the aforementioned Polenov. The latter introduced a new dimension to realist landscape with his fresh plein-air technique borrowed from the Barbizon School and bold contrasts of light and shade, coupled with splashes of pure colour.
'Marsh at evening', executed in 1882 during this diverse formative period, is vital to understanding how Levitan synthesised his various influences and is a remarkable example of his art in embryonic form. Painted during his residence in Ostankino when the artist was merely 22 years of age, the work was exhibited in 1882-83 along with four other canvases at the 5th Students' Exhibition at the Moscow School. Levitan invests this boundless panorama with a splendour and beauty seemingly at odds with the humble wasteland that it depicts. In so doing, Levitan shows the ability to render the ordinary poetic; a quality which anticipates his 'mood landscapes' depicting the Volga river for which he was to become so famous.
The painting also suggests Levitan's preoccupation with nature as an overwhelming and intimidating entity capable of absorbing mankind; an idea paralleled by the way the huge canvas draws the viewer into the scene. The simple constructions to the centre left of the composition, perhaps hayricks, appear to suggest a human presence; a device which Levitan used often, to solder an instant connection between the viewer and the forces of nature, and provide a scale by which to measure the magnitude of the scene depicted. In his later work, 'Hayricks at Dusk' (Fig. 1), executed in 1899, one can see how Levitan developed this device further in subsequent years; the delicate tonal palette, coupled with the simple composition highlights the beauty of a nature marked with mankind's imprint.
In the present painting harmony is created by the interaction of the two vast horizontals of sky and land, unified by the subtle gradations of orange and yellow present in the immense skyscape and echoed in the muddy pools below. The lack of aerial perspective serves to emphasise the two-dimensional expanse of canvas and by extension the spectacle of the scene itself. Despite the authenticity of the subject-matter, in line with Levitan's propensity to depict fields, ponds, hayricks and roads, this landscape is in fact a stylised and carefully orchestrated vision of nature. Although Levitan often used the plein-air technique for his initial studies, the larger canvases were always perfected in the studio. Like Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898), Levitan keenly observed the minutiae of nature but unlike his contemporary, he favoured a more impressionistic approach and evocative brushstroke.
'Marsh at evening' encourages the viewer to extend his gaze skyward, above the uprooted trees and deserted scrubland in the same way that Levitan's later masterpiece, 'Above eternal rest' (1893-4, The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) forces the viewer to contemplate the heavens. His devotion to adding a spiritual dimension to his work is revealed in a letter written to a friend in 1887, 'Can there be anything more tragic than the feeling of endless beauty in everything around you, to observe the hidden mysteries, to see God in everything and not to be able, realising your inadequacy, to express all these emotions adequately and fully?'. As evident in the present painting, Levitan clearly recognised the sublime in the untamed Russian landscape and despite his self-doubt was able to elevate the ordinary to monumental status.
'Marsh at evening' is an extraordinary testimony to the genius of Levitan who, in the words of Serge Diaghilev, 'succeeded in making us realise that we had lost the art of appreciating and seeing Russian scenery with Russian eyes; making us realise that he alone of Russian painters was able to depict the infinite charm of all those emotions which, in the morning coolness, or twilight's languorous warmth, in some remote north Russian village, each of us so blissfully feels. How much true understanding of Russian nature, worthy of Pushkin himself, we find in all his work; in his blue moonlit nights, his avenues of sleeping, century-old birches, which slowly lead one to that old house in the country, which all of us know so well...But one fact remains indubitable, and will never be forgotten. That very moment we leave the stifling atmosphere of the town for nature, we recall with gratitude the great lessons of this painter of Russian soil. Whether it be some village belfry, some tattered hedge or bluish lake, in all his work we see nature through him, by means of him, as he himself saw it and revealed it to others.' (S. Lifar, Serge Diaghilev - His life, his work, his legend, London, 1945, pp. 24-25)