The work of Isaac Ilyich Levitan belongs to the highest achievements of Russian culture. Its significance is compared with the works of such classics as Anton Chekhov, Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Konstantin Stanislavsky. Levitan was born in 1860 into a poor but educated Jewish family. In the late 1860s, the family moved to Moscow, where Isaac studied at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture from 1873 till 1883. He lost his mother in 1875 and his father two years later. He was left penniless and homeless in Moscow, sleeping alternately in the homes of relatives and friends, sometimes spending the night in the empty classrooms of the school.
1879. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
1876-77. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
1877-78. Oil on canvas. The Art Museum, Tula, Russia.
1877. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
Early 1880s. Study. Oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1880. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
1880s. Gouache, lead pencil and scratching on chalk-overlay cardboard. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Early 1880s. Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1880s. Study. Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard. The Picture Gallery, Vologda, Russia.
1880s. Study. Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1880s. Oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1880s. Study. Oil on canvas. The Picture Gallery of Armenia, Erevan, Armenia.
1880s. Watercolor on paper. The Picture Gallery of Armenia, Erevan, Armenia.
1880s. Oil on canvas. The A. N. Radishchev Museum of Arts, Saratov, Russia.
1880s. Indian ink, brush and white on yellow paper. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
1881. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
1882. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
1883. Study. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
1883. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.
1883. Oil on canvas. The Picture Gallery of Armenia, Erevan, Armenia.
Isaak Levitan. Aurora. Leningrad. 1980
Levitan. by V.Petrov. Russian Painters of the XIX century. Moscow. 1992.
Isaak Levitan: Lyrical Landscapes by Averil King. Philip Wilson Publishers, 2004
Russian Impressionism: Paintings, 1870-1970 by Vladimir Kruglov, Vladimir Lenyashin. Harry N Abrams, 2000.
The Art and Architecture of Russia (Pelican History Art) by George Heard Hamilton. Yale Univ Pr, 1992.
A Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Artists 1420-1970 by John Milner. Antique Collectors' Club, 1993.