"It seems like yesterday, though it's been more than 20 years since Rafael and I entered the gloomy, barn-like building smelling of turpentine of the National Academy of Design. It was an important day in our life; we realized we had irrevocably put an end to the past and officially started our career as artists," Moses Sawyer writes in his autobiographical essay Three Brothers. "America was not then the center of the arts. John Singer Sargent seemed to us the greatest artist. We knew a bit of Homs, Eakins and Ryder. Our isolation in the thick walls of the Academy was so complete that we did not even know that beyond its borders Bellows, Sloan and Henry were waging a brave war against academic traditions. Like most students, we came to school with a fresh vision, free of customs and prejudices and full of enthusiasm; like most students, we very quickly lost our individuality and originality." [http://artukraine.com.ua/a/amerikanskie-druzya-otca-russkogo-futurizma-david-burlyuk-i-bratya