The Train on the Way by Isaac Levitan at the Odesa Fine Arts Museum

The painting Train on the Road depicts a freight train, carried along by a steam locomotive. The train moves from the bottom of the picture to the viewer, this unusual perspective creates a sense of complete ownership of what is happening, the so-called presence effect. The hill, on which the train moves, is covered with thick green grass and covered with small flowers, blue and white. Tuition was waived because of undue hardship. Isaac's teachers Vasily Polunov and Alexei Sarasov stressed the importance of working outdoors. Sarasov taught his students to, quote, seek out in the most ordinary and commonplace phenomena the intimate, the infinitely touching, and often melancholy features which are strongly felt in our native scenery, and which evoke an overwhelming sense of belonging. Isaac Leviton was born in 1860 in a part of the Russian Empire which is present-day Lithuania. In September of 1873 he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. In 1877 his works were first publicly exhibited. During his study in the Moscow School, Leviton befriended Nikolai Chekhov, whose famous brother, playwright and author Anton Chekhov, became the artist's closest friend.