Levitan was born in 1860 in Kibarty, Lithuania. His father worked for a railroad company. From 1873 to 1885, Levitan went to school at the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow, Russia. He learned painting form the painters Savrasov and Polenov. Starting in 1884 his paintings went on display with the Society for Circulating Art Exhibitions. He became a member of the society in 1891. Levitan taught landscape painting at the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture starting in 1898. He died in Moscow in 1900.