What connected Serov and Levitan was not only their similar views on art, but also a deep friendly sympathy. Their characters too had a common feature: a tendency to melancholic reflections. In this portrait, Serov steps away from the impressionistic discoveries of his early art to create a more in-depth characterisation. The contrast of a dark background and a bright face help him to fathom the essence of great landscape painter’s tragic perception of the world. The portrait was not painted in a natural environment so beloved by Levitan, but in a gloomy interior. Serov caught the impress of artistic chosenness in the artist’s image. In the dark space his swarthy face and aristocratic hand, with which he leans against the back of a straw chair, seem surprisingly golden. These details seem to transfer us to the Russian nature images created by the artist and illuminated by the inner, soft light of sunsets and colours of the Golden Autumn.
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow