Isaac Levitan was a recognized master of the Russian landscape. His childhood and youth were marked by severe trials — the early loss of his parents, poverty, and hard physical labor. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a close friend of Levitan. Although their friendship was clouded by the fact that Chekhov borrowed certain episodes from Levitan's biography, they managed to maintain close relations until the artist's final days. His difficult life left a deep mark on Levitan's soul and affected his health — he was prone to depression and died at forty of a heart aneurysm.
Because of his Jewish background, Levitan graduated from the institute with a diploma as a penmanship teacher, never receiving the title of artist. Konstantin Paustovsky wrote: 'The talented Jewish boy irritated some of the teachers. In their opinion, a Jew should not touch the Russian landscape.' Nevertheless, Levitan was one of the best students of Vasily Perov, Alexei Savrasov, and Vasily Polenov; he belonged to the Peredvizhniki (the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions) and became a worthy successor of the Russian pictorial tradition.
He loved Russia deeply, with its boundless expanses, unique beauty, and the grandeur of its landscapes. Russian nature became the leitmotif of Levitan's work, and it was he who managed to create one of the most 'Russian' landscapes in the history of national painting. The painting 'Above the Eternal Rest' was first shown at the 22nd exhibition of the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions in St. Petersburg. Even before the exhibition the canvas was acquired by the collector Pavel Tretyakov. Levitan was glad that this work entered Tretyakov's 'colossal collection,' as he wrote to him in a letter of thanks.
The painting 'Above the Eternal Rest' is one of Levitan's largest works. Its dimensions are 150 × 206 cm. The painting depicts a boundless space: a water surface receding into the distance, a headland with an old church and a cemetery, and above them a heavy sky filled with storm clouds. It is believed that the basis of the painting's subject were plein air studies Levitan made from the lakes Ostrovno and Udomlya and from the town of Plyos. Art historians agree that the painting's subject is a composite, deliberately thought-out image. The painting immerses the viewer in a state of contemplative calm and, by reminding one of the transience of existence, ennobles the human soul and recalls the connection between man and the forces of nature and the universe.
The canvas received mixed reactions from viewers and critics, who criticized the painting's heavy impasto and compositional shortcomings, but time put everything in its place, and the painting assumed its place among the masterpieces of Russian art. The publicist Vasily Mikheev called Levitan's painting a strange symphony that elusively embraces the soul. The work can be seen in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery. The gallery's collection also holds the graphic and painted studies for the painting.
