Stepanov Alex Stepanovich (1858-1923)

Humble, gentle, kind A. Stepanova, "Stepochka," as everyone called him, loved and valued friends - S. Ivanov , N. Chekhov, brothers A and C. By A. Korovin , I. Levitan , M. Nesterov - and many students, among them P. Korin , AA Plastov , L. B. Turzhansky etc. Corinne after the show Stepanova said: "As if I had read Pushkin's poetry.'s just as easy, simple, and highly ... What to say about it? artist he was.'s all here and it is said. And it was simple, no effects. soul in it was, and that - the most important thing. Again, a high artistry, craftsmanship unmatched. Sparkling it with his great simplicity. "

Stepanov very soon lost his parents. With seven years of his guardian was brought up at the insistence of the young man who in 1879 graduated from the Moscow Institute of Land Surveying and purchased land surveyor profession.

However, work in this specialty did not, and in 1880 he entered the Moscow School of Painting. Engaged in the class I. Pryanishnikova , studied successfully and in 1884 graduated from high school with a silver medal.

In the second half of the 1880s. Stepanov several summers working with I. I. Levitan - first near Zvenigorod, then on the Volga. Along with Levitan is considered one of the founders of the so-called mood landscapes, when the artist is not only looking at the nature of the motif corresponding to its internal state, but also psihologizirust landscape, moves into his own thoughts and feelings.

Stepanova plein air works are character, they are written broadly sketched, liquid, transparent smear, very softly, a few flowers ("Colors of less" - he advised his students later). Stepanov liked to portray the village road on which the peasant horses dragging sleds or carts ("Jib", 1910-15, "On a dirt road in the winter", "At the porch," both in 1913 - 14, "leave", 1914). He loved to depict the peasant children, observing the world around us - naked, poor, autumnal, but native and wide ("The Cranes are flying", 1891, "Children on the brushwood", 1899, "We outskirts", 1915-16). With enthusiasm wrote hunting scene ("After the Hunt. Return", 1907, "Killed by elk," 1900-10, "With greyhounds," 1910, "Saw", 1917). Stepanov loved animals and had the rare ability to transfer their habits, and even psychology ("Moose", 1889, "On the fishing," 1909 "Elk and likes", 1910, "Night Wolves" "Wolves at the fence," both 1910 , "Waiting for dinner," 1910). Genre in which the artist preferred to work, you can call the landscape and animal painting. M. Nesterov Stepanova considered the best animal painter after V. Serov . Serov also highly appreciated the gift of the artist, because insisted on inviting Stepanova as a teacher in the Moscow School of Painting.

About twenty years (1899 - 1918) led Stepanov there "class of animals." The pupils loved him to distraction. Very little is known about the personal life of the artist - not long before his death he destroyed his archive. But all of it - in his paintings.