The story of the school of drawing Kazanovsky in Zhytomyr will be unfinished, if we do not remember the students who have reached the top of the living thanks to the teachers and their talent. A vivid example is the graduate of the school – Sofia Levytska, today her name is less known, and in the 1930s of the last century she was often wrote art newspapers
Modest in everyday life, unpretentious, with his own life tragedy, Sofia Levytska became a precious pearl in the cultural life of Paris in the first half of the twentieth century. The best art galleries in France competed for the opportunity to exhibit and sell her artistic works.
Famous Bert Weil – gallerist, art historian – and other gallerists have earned great wealth on the sale of her works.
Known in those days, the poet, the publisher of books on painting, the collector of woodworks (graphic works) Roger Allard spoke about Sophia: “Her talent was struck by Paris, capricious and proud. This fact is not necessary to prove. ”
Sofia Levytska was born in the village of Vilkhivtsi, Khmelnytsky region in 1874. Her father was a wealthy landowner, an educated man, worked as an inspector of popular schools, and joined with Vladimir Antonovich, a historian, professor at the University of Kyiv; Tadeem Rylsky – ethnographer, public and cultural figure, father of Maxim Rylsky.
The interest and attraction to drawing led Sophia to the school of Kazanovsky. The training was easy for her, the young pupil was a success. Thanks to the teachers of the school there was a strong conviction to become an artist.
At 19, Sofia married a man of Zhytomyr Manilovskyi. Marital life was a hard test: the husband abused alcohol, his daughter was born, were mental deviations. At the end of his studies, Sofia returns to his father’s home, leaves the child to care for him, and goes to Kyiv, where he visits the art studio of Serhii Svitoslavskyi. According to his advice, at the end of 1905 he goes to study drawing to Paris.
Already during the acquisition of professional experience at the Paris Academy of Arts, Sofia Levytsky was recognized by art lovers, collectors, art critics.
The first attempts to independently participate in exhibitions attract the attention of critics, who celebrate the originality of her work and the exceptional sense of taste of art: “She captivated all of her extraordinary charm and was disturbed by the understanding of nature.”
Her work flourished in decorative compositions, inspiration and themes of the plots of paintings provided by numerous trips by France, close relationships with the elite of the creators of his time, whose names today are honored throughout the world: Apollinaire, Henri Matisse, Paul Valery …
Beginning in 1910, Sofia participates in the most innovative currents of illustration of artistic works. She and Henri Matisse collaborate in the popular metropolitan magazine Montjoie. In the Paris literary and artistic magazine “L-ELAN” Levitsky illustrates the poems of Guillaume Apollinaire himself. Artistic Paris breathtaking!
Apollinaire – a poet, artist, critic, founder of the literary avant-garde, who defined the direction of French and world poetry in the twentieth century, elected the illustrator of his poetry Ukrainka, Sofia Levyts’ka.
Even more than that, obviously, under its influence, the poet writes a work for Ukrainian motives “The answer of the Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan”, successfully combining bright Ukrainian humor with witty French jokes. Feeling the confidence, the artist illustrates “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka” by Nikolai Gogol, who, with the poet Roger Alier, translated French.
Levitskaya lived not only in one painting, it was interested in music, poetry, literature, it attracted creative people. He lived in the former studio of Auguste Renoir, where as a friendly and merry hostess, with Ukrainian sincerity, arranged home parties, which managed to combine many artists, writers, poets, critics, cultural figures.
At the same time Levytska maintains friendly relations with Ukrainian fellow citizens. The world-famous sculptor Alexander Arkhipenko is a frequent guest in her house. He was the founder of the course of Cubism, at one time, as well as Sofia, studied at the art school of Sergei Svitoslavskyi. At the 1912 exhibition, their works were presented alongside.
Sofia had a nice time with Alexander Kuprin. The reason for the close communication with the famous writer was the memory of the past life in Zhytomyr. Everyone in our city left a piece of her life. Parisian period Kuprin was not easy, Sofia in every way supported the writer.
As an artist, Sofia Levytska has an indisputable merit for Ukraine: she has interested Ukrainians in many cultural figures in France. She did not forget her homeland. Confidently met the news that the Russian Empire collapsed, responding to the graphic work “Liberation of Ukraine”, where the Cossack, squatting a two-headed eagle, struck white and red.
Ukrainian artist Oleksa Hryshchenko recalled: “Everyone loved her for good temper and hospitality.” Paul Valerie’s poet about Sophia says: “I’m happy to have the opportunity to meet a man of the highest quality.” Best described her by Emile Bernard: “It was a charming soul. She was listening to music, like soul music
All the feelings rang in her gloss and it seemed that she was not from this world. When holding a brush in his hand, it seemed that the palette served as a rainbow. Her images are decorations of joy and legend.
Heavily family circumstances spoiled health, and the nervous ailment brought the artist from the world in 1937. Sophia Levytska is buried in Paris.
“It’s not so important in what direction you go, it’s important what you are going to do. To go to someone, we must be someone “, – said in ancient times the philosopher Seneca. Sofia Levytska proved it, starting her artistic path in Zhytomyr, and completing it in eternity.

Sergey Sobchuk
Member of the National Union of Local History of Ukraine
Anna Sobchuk, co-author
Photos taken from open source.
Used materials from articles of professor V.German and art historian François Roussier
Translated by Aliona Matushevich