Page:Benois - The Russian School of Painting (1916).djvu/205

 separate ground. To the "World of Art" belongs the honour of a true appreciation of this great artist and of that moral support, which Levitan felt in people, who really understood his art and desired but one thing—that he should express himself as fully as possible, without any admixture of literary ballast. If nowadays the younger generation disagrees with this appreciation, it is not because of Levitan's adherence to "literature," but rather because every phenomenon in art, be it ever so beautiful, must in course of time be replaced by another one, in most cases diametrically opposed to it.

Levitan might rather be blamed for other failings. The purely pictorial qualities of his earlier pictures, which seemed excellent, are no longer so highly valued. Not in vain was Levitan a Russian painter, the pupil of the dilettante Savrasov and of the Moscow Art School; not in vain did he spend his youth among people who were very advanced and sensitive, but had a scant artistic culture. There are in the "Quiet Convent," not to speak of his earlier paintings, traces of this school and of these influences. But it is to Levitan's credit that unlike some of his fellow-painters, he was aware of his failings and in his last years strove to free himself from them.

Levitan obstinately strove forwards, and in this