Aft part of barge 1893

This is Isaac Levitan's sketch of the aft part of a barge. Levitan, a Russian landscape painter active in the late 19th century, lived in a time of great social change. He was Jewish, which shaped his identity and experience in the anti-Semitic environment of Tsarist Russia. This sketch, simple as it is, offers us a glimpse into the world of labor and transport on Russia's waterways. Barges like this were crucial for moving goods and people, yet the lives of the barge workers were often hard and unacknowledged. As a landscape painter, Levitan often focused on the emotional or spiritual qualities of the Russian countryside, and it is interesting to consider that the barge in this sketch represents both labor and also movement, a kind of in-between state, like his own as a Jew in Russia. Levitan’s work often evokes a sense of melancholy, perhaps reflecting his own struggles. While seemingly a straightforward sketch, it prompts us to consider the human stories behind the scenes of everyday life in late 19th century Russia.