The modest, delicate, and kind A.S. Stepanov, affectionately called "Stepochka" by friends, was loved and respected by his peers—S.V. Ivanov, N.P. Chekhov, the brothers S.A. and K.A. Korovin, I.I. Levitan, M.V. Nesterov—and by his many students, including P.D. Korin, A.A. Plastov, L.V. Turzhansky, among others. After Stepanov's exhibition, Korin said: "It's as if I read Pushkin's poetry. So simple, and yet so elevated... What can one say? He was an artist. That says it all. Everything in him was simple, without theatrics. He had a soul, and that is the most important thing. But at the same time, he had high artistry and incomparable mastery. He sparkled through his simplicity." Stepanov lost his parents very early. From the age of seven, he was raised by a guardian, who insisted Stepanov graduate from the Land Survey Institute in Moscow in 1879, acquiring the profession of a surveyor. However, he did not follow this profession, and in 1880, he entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (MUZhVZ). He studied in the class of I.M. Pryanishnikov, achieved excellent results, and graduated in 1884 with a large silver medal. In the second half of the 1880s, Stepanov spent several summer seasons working alongside I.I. Levitan—first near Zvenigorod, then on the Volga. Along with Levitan, he is considered one of the founders of the so-called "mood landscape", where the artist not only seeks a motif in nature corresponding to his inner state, but also imbues the landscape with his own thoughts and emotions. In 1905, Stepanov was awarded the title of Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts for his painting "Morning Greeting." The painting was exhibited at the 25th Peredvizhniki exhibition, the 24th exhibition of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and at the 1900 World Exhibition in Paris. Stepanov's works are plein air in character, painted broadly, sketchily, with light, transparent brushstrokes, using few colors ("Less color," he later advised his students). Stepanov loved to depict village roads with peasant horses pulling sleds or carts. He also enjoyed painting peasant children observing their surroundings—a bare, poor, autumnal, but native and vast world (for example, "Cranes Flying", 1891; "Children on Brushwood", 1899; "By the Outskirts", 1915-16). His preferred genre can be called landscape-animalistic. M.V. Nesterov considered Stepanov the best animalist after V.A. Serov. Serov also valued this gift and insisted on inviting Stepanov as a teacher at MUZhVZ. For about twenty years (1899-1918), Stepanov led the "animal class" there. Students adored him. Very little is known about his personal life—shortly before his death, he destroyed his archive. But his entire essence lives on in his paintings. A trip to Europe, and especially the painting of French Impressionists, influenced Stepanov's work, although this was denied by his contemporaries. As a result of the trip, he painted the work "Laundresses in Vichy." Stepanov loved animals and had a rare ability to convey their behavior and even psychology in his art. There is a deep difference between Impressionist painting and that of Stepanov, rooted in the very principles of their art. The Impressionist masterfully conveys the momentary impression, but by being true to the moment, something is lost from the ever-unfolding essence present in every phenomenon and every thing. Stepanov, on the other hand, sought to capture the most essential, that which gives tone and character to the subject, discarding the unnecessary and reaching into the very core of the object. Behind his light and airy painting lies much skill and hard work. This is why he did not allow his students to imitate him, instead teaching them to see, choose the main thing, and train their eyes to distinguish the subtlest tonal nuances. In 1920, Stepanov became seriously ill but continued to work. One of his last works, "Swings" (1923), was acquired for the Carnegie Institute's collection. Alexey Stepanovich Stepanov died in 1923 and was buried at the Vagankovo Cemetery.
