Весенний лес

1873–1885

Friends from school: Korovin, Nesterov, Shekhtel, N. Chekhov

During his years at the school Levitan befriends Konstantin Korovin, Mikhail Nesterov, the architect Fyodor Shekhtel and the painter Nikolay Chekhov — the writer's brother, who entered the school in 1875.

1879

Expelled from Moscow after the attempt on the tsar

After Alexander Soloviev's attempt on Alexander II (2 April), a decree is issued forbidding Jews to live in Moscow, and the eighteen-year-old Levitan is expelled; for the next couple of years he lives with his brother, sister and brother-in-law in a small dacha at Saltykovka near Balashikha. A year later, with the money from the sale of his painting “Evening after Rain”, he rents a furnished room on Bolshaya Lubyanka.

1880

Tretyakov buys “Autumn Day” for 100 roubles

The famous philanthropist and art collector Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov buys the painting for 100 roubles and will go on to acquire about twenty more of Levitan's works.

early 1880s

Illustrations for the magazine “Moscow” and the book “Kremlin”

In the early 1880s he works with the Chekhov brothers on the illustrated magazine “Moscow” and illustrates M. Fabritsius's edition “Kremlin”.