Levitan and the Silver Birch‪.‬

Isaak Levitan's paintings are a highlight of the exhibition of Russian landscapes from the age of Tolstoy currently at the National Gallery, London. Averil King traces the use he makes of a key image, the silver birch, which is both a symbol of Russian identity and a link with new developments in landscape painting in France, Germany and Austria. Isaak Levitan made telling use of the silver birch in his landscape painting. As a motif, it was lyrical, expressive and, above all, calculated to evoke feelings of affection for the Russian Motherland. Whereas his compatriot Ivan Shishkin, a fellow member of the Assocation for Traveling Art Exhibitions (the Pereduizhniki or Wanderers), (1) chose to commemorate the huge coniferous inhabitants of Russia's great forests, Levitau preferred to make this dainty, deciduous species, which grows so freely in central Russia, into a significant ingredient in his paintings, a motif which allows us, too, to appreciate the wider, European context of his art.