The modest, delicate, kind A. S. Stepanov, affectionately called "Stepochka" by his friends—including S. V. Ivanov, N. P. Chekhov, brothers S. A. and K. A. Korovin, I. I. Levitan, M. V. Nesterov, and many students such as P. D. Korin, A. A. Plastov, L. V. Turzhansky and others—was both loved and appreciated. After Stepanov's exhibition, Korin remarked: "It's as if I have read Pushkin's poetry: simple, simple, yet sublime... What can I say? He was an artist. That's all there is to it. Everything in him was simple, without effects. He had soul, and that's the most important thing. But also high artistry, incomparable mastery. He sparkled in his great simplicity." Alexey Stepanovich Stepanov lost his parents at a very young age. From the age of seven, he was raised by a guardian, who insisted he graduate from the Land-Surveying Institute in Moscow in 1879 and become a land surveyor. However, he did not pursue this profession, enrolling in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (MUZHVZ) in 1880. He studied under I. M. Pryanishnikov, was successful, and graduated in 1884 with a large silver medal. In the late 1880s, Stepanov spent several summers working alongside I. I. Levitan, first near Zvenigorod, then on the Volga. Alongside Levitan, he is regarded as one of the founders of the so-called "mood landscape", where the artist not only seeks in nature a motif that corresponds to his inner state, but also psychologizes the landscape, transferring his own thoughts and emotions into it. In 1905, Stepanov was awarded the title of Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts for his painting "Morning Greeting", which was exhibited at the XXV Peredvizhniki exhibition, XXIV exhibition of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and at the World's Fair in Paris in 1900. Stepanov's works are plein air in nature, painted broadly, sketch-like, with fluid, transparent brushwork, very softly, and with few colors (he would advise his students: "Use less paint"). Stepanov often depicted village roads with peasant horses pulling sleighs or carts ("Goose", 1910–15; "Country Road in Winter", "By the Porch", both 1913–14; "They Left", 1914). He loved to depict peasant children observing the world around them—bare, poor, autumnal, yet native and vast ("Cranes Flying", 1891; "Children on Firewood", 1899; "At the Village Edge", 1915–16). A trip to Europe, in particular the artwork of French Impressionists, had a certain influence on his work, though this was denied by contemporaries. After this trip, Stepanov painted "Laundresses in Vichy". He enthusiastically painted hunting scenes ("After the Hunt. Return", 1907; "Killed Elk", 1900–10; "With Borzoi Dogs", 1910s; "They Saw It", 1917). Stepanov loved animals and had a rare ability to convey their habits and even psychology ("Elks", 1889; "The Hunt", 1909; "Elk and Laikas", 1910; "Wolves at Night", "Wolves by the Fence", both 1910s; "Waiting for Dinner", 1910). The genre in which Stepanov preferred to work can be called landscape-animalistic. M. V. Nesterov considered Stepanov the best animalist after V. A. Serov. Serov also highly valued this gift and insisted on inviting Stepanov to teach at MUZHVZ. For about twenty years (1899–1918), Stepanov led the "animal class" there. His students adored him. Very little is known about his personal life—as he destroyed his archive shortly before his death. But all that he was, is in his paintings. Especially interesting is Stepanov's gouache "Grand Opera" (c. 1922), made in such an obviously creative manner reminiscent of the Impressionists that even experts in 19th-century French art attributed it to Degas or his circle. While Stepanov admired Degas and was inspired by his masterful draughtsmanship, it would be wrong to see this work as mere imitation of French Impressionism. It is an inspired, excited, practical exercise, fueled by the artist's desire to keep learning. What truly moved Stepanov was the Russian theme. It should be noted that Stepanov's students (A. P. Panfilov, V. A. Filippov, B. N. Yakovlev, and others) denied the presence of Impressionism in his work. Between Impressionists' painting and Stepanov's art there lies a fundamental difference rooted in the very principle of their art. The Impressionist masterfully conveys the instantaneous impression, but in being true to the moment, something essential is lost—something ongoing, inherent in every phenomenon. Stepanov, on the other hand, sought the essence, the quality that set the tone or character of the subject, discarding the unnecessary and peering into its very heart. Behind his light, quick, airy painting lies much skill, but also much labor. "Not Impressionism," says A. P. Panfilov. "He painted gently but persistently." This is why in his animals "the coat is always visible," though nothing is more distant from naturalism than Stepanov's art. Years of hard work, thousands of outdoor observations, careful study of animal anatomy, and alongside this, mastering all artistic materials—paints, thinners, canvas, cardboard—formed the basis of Stepanov's method. He forbade his students from imitating him, knowing it could only be superficial and harmful. He taught them to see, to choose the main thing, to remember; he trained their eyes to discern the subtlest tonal shades. In 1920, Stepanov fell seriously ill but continued to work. One of his last works, "Swings" (1923), was purchased for the Carnegie Institute collection. Alexey Stepanovich Stepanov died in 1923 and was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery in Moscow.
