One of the meetings of literary hall of the Jewish Republican library filial in Taraz was devoted to works of Isaac Levitan, a wonderful Russian landscape painter, Jew by nationality. It's a pity, but as major talented people he lived a short live. But already at the age of 20 Levitan painted his famous picture "Autumn", which was bought by Pavel Tretyakov - a millionaire and a well-known Russian collector of painting - for his collection.

   In his works Isaac Levitan revealed the most concealed sides of Russian nature. Being felt with a Jewish heart they were transmitted to Russian people in simple motives, touching with their sincerity.

   The story about Levitan was accompanied by both demonstrations of illustrations from books and albums, devoted to the works of that genius artist and extractions from diaries of his contemporaries. Anton Chekhov wrote the following about Levitan:

   "… he loved nature as something special. It wasn't even love, but amorousness… Art was even something holy for him… Levitan knew that he took right way, he believed in this way, believed that he could find new beauties in native nature".

   And really, nature, painted by Levitan is alive and inspired with people's feelings, spirits and emotions.

  Whom ever such landscapes as "Near still waters", "Golden Autumn", "Lake", "Russia", "Everlasting chime" could leave indifferent? … There each season, each day lives, breaths, feels.

  People that were lucky to visit Tretyakov Gallery, remembered that charming grand nature on canvas: may it be a wide mirror-like water surface, reflecting clouds with sun beams or fields, villages, church domes - all these were permeated with a feeling of happiness.

   It's hard to believe that one of those canvases was painted by a dying artist. Not in vain, while characterizing Russian landscape painters, works by Isaak Levitan are marked in a special way: "He is the most wonderful poet and the most wonderful magician of mood …"

Ida Bukina