Konstantin Korovin’s classmates were aware of his great artistic talent, and were even protective of the young artist - they would often ask their general subject teachers to give him a “pass” grade. Everyone’s favourite, while studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, he would neglect all his classes except painting. “In the Park” recalls the youthful carefree days of Konstantin Korovin’s student years. It features an autumn park smothered in golden leaves and a young girl wandering along its path, deep in thought. The painting was most likely created in one of Korovin’s favourite places in Moscow – Sokolniki or Ostankino. The young Korovin, together with his brother Sergei and their friend and fellow artist Isaac Levitan would often go there to create studies. “We went there every day, with only the “richest” of us having a penny or two in his pocket. We’d paint all day long, the paint sparingly squeezed out from its tubes.” In Korovin’s memoirs, autumn was the season of sadness, and this early work of his infuses a light melancholy. There was a good reason why, in his “Notes on Art”, Korovin would choose one of his autumn landscapes as the best work he had created: “My painting “Autumn” is what can rightly be called a landscape. It was made with the kind of deep affection for nature that I had in early childhood. In any painting, the beauty and power of impressions depend entirely on their truthfulness. An artist should create more distinct, more acute motifs, be more precise in grasping the truth, and more complete in choosing object and purpose. He should abandon himself and become an observer, looking from the outside.”