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Levitan is famous throughout Russia for his ability to express the soul of Russian nature.
His name stands beside such other great national cultural figures as Tolstoy, Chekhov, Rachmaninoff, Yermolova, Chaliapin and Repin, whose works constitute the pride of the entire nation. Chekhov referred to the artist as Russia's best landscape painter. Landscapes have always occupied a prominent place in Russian painting.
In the first half of the nineteenth century, such artists as Venetsianov, then Savrasov, Shishkin, Vasilyev, Polenov and other Russian artists praised in their works the poetic beauty of Russian nature, modest and unremarkable in its outward appearance.
Artists found their subject-matter in the countryside, in the fields, woodlands and meadows. In its mood and inspiration, their work was a reflection of the life of the people.
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