Masterpieces of Ivan Shishkin: The most famous paintings of the great Russian landscape painter. Shishkin - biography, paintings

How truly great are the artists, whose inexhaustible supply of spiritual strength and life observations is poured into an extremely clear, simple form, accessible to the widest audience. The whole philosophy of their paintings is a hymn to living nature, the beauty of nature. Their work resembles a leisurely song, epic and free. The best canvases of artists become milestones in the development of the art of the country in which they lived and painted. Their compatriots are proud of their paintings as national treasures, so great is the generalized sense of citizenship and sense of the Motherland in these realistic works.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Russian national landscape was unconditionally established. That is why Shishkin’s work marks an important stage in the development of this genre. Among the outstanding artists Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich(1832-1896) represents with his art an exceptional phenomenon that was not known in the region landscape painting previous eras. Like many Russian artists, he naturally possessed enormous natural talent. Nemirovich-Danchenko spoke of his work in the following way: “A poet of nature, precisely a poet who thinks in its images, discerning its beauty where a mere mortal would pass by indifferently.” Shishkin's creativity imbued with the pathos of life and the affirmation of the beauty and strength of nature of the native country.

The future artist was born in Yelabuga on the Kama - deaf Russian province. The inhabitants of this town carefully preserved the fundamental foundations of the patriarchal way of life. His father was a merchant cultured person. His father was the first from whom Vanya found support in his aspirations for art. In 1852, young Shishkin enters the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Then four years of study at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Already during this period, Shishkin introduced innovation to landscape genre– a sketch approach to the subject of the image, full-scale exploration of nature. One of the works of the academic period “VIEW ON THE ISLAND OF VALAAME” (Kukko area) (1858, Kiev Museum of Russian Art). The future artist admired meadows and forests, grasses and flowers, stumps and stones, bushes and mosses, in which the idea of ​​living life and the eternal growth of nature was manifested. Shishkin was attracted by thirst artistic research nature. He carefully examined, probed, studied every stem, tree trunk, trembling foliage on the branches, erect herbs and mosses. For this painting Shishkin received a large gold medal and the right to improve their creativity abroad after graduating from the Academy.

For two years, the artist gained knowledge in Switzerland and Germany. From where he returned as a highly professional, he became a professor (the head of a landscape class) and a member of the Association of Itinerants. Here he nurtured his view of creativity and determined the themes of future works. Life in a foreign land sharpened his sense of his homeland.

Another painting by the artist “SESTROETSKY BOR” (1887) has the opposite plot. Here is not a thicket, but sunlight, breaking through the pines and warming the earth. And again, the main characters in Shishkin’s landscapes are trees. In the spirit of his time, the artist poetizes them, calling them from the opening lines of the poem: “Among the flat valley...”, “In the wild north...”.

“AMID THE FLAT VALLEY...” (1883, Kiev Museum of Russian Art) – romantic painting, which became a continuation majestic landscape, created based on the poem of the same name by Alexei Merzlyakov. The artist developed a visually compelling painting, filled with the smells of the plain and the coolness of the fading day. Shishkin spent his whole life depicting forests, but here there is only one tree in the entire vast space. The picture is addressed to a person’s well-being in a vast world. Shishkin's man is attached to the ground. Nature expresses music human soul. Through its states, a person reflects on life. Thus, the artist’s landscape expresses the state of nature and the feelings of man responding to this state. It is very difficult to say which of the artist’s works is the most remarkable. All of Shishkin’s works show how his creative goals expanded, and how a true landscape painter wanted to express the best folk ideals and aspirations in the images of Russian nature.

IN paintings by Shishkin as it sounds “the spirit and image of the great, mighty space” called Russia. In the artist’s images the era lives, a mighty, unhurried people is imagined, a huge endless country is seen, which has no end and which keeps moving away and moving away into endless horizons. Shishkin conquered the most with his works wide circles society. After all, he created a real epic of the Russian forest, capturing not only the appearance of the national nature, but also the character of the people. It was from Shishkin’s love for nature that images were born that have long become unique symbols of Russia. Already the figure of Shishkin personified Russian nature for his contemporaries. He was called the “forest hero-artist”, “king of the forest”, “old forest man”, he was compared to an old strong pine tree, but he was most likely similar to the lonely oak tree from his famous painting. After all, the artist had a difficult fate. Twice he married for love, and twice death took away his beloved women. His sons died. But Shishkin never allowed himself to endure his own serious condition on nature.

Shishkin died on March 20, 1898, like a true artist - at work. His student Grigory Gurkin worked in Shishkin’s workshop. Hearing an unnaturally loud sigh, he looked out from behind the canvas and saw the teacher slowly sliding onto his side. This is how his niece describes the death of Ivan Ivanovich. But the master’s creativity is alive, in which “the spirit and image of the great, powerful space” called Russia sounds.

"A landscape painter is a true artist, he feels deeper, purer... Nature is always new... and is always ready to give with an inexhaustible supply of its gifts, which we call life. What can be better than nature..." - Shishkin I.I.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is not only one of the largest, but also perhaps the most popular among Russian landscape painters. Shishkin knew Russian nature “ scientifically”(I.N. Kramskoy) and loved her with all the strength of his powerful nature. From this knowledge and this love, images were born that have long become unique symbols of Russia. Already the figure of Shishkin personified Russian nature for his contemporaries. He was called the “forest hero-artist”, “king of the forest”, “old forest man”, he could be compared to “an old strong pine tree overgrown with moss”, but, rather, he is like a lonely oak tree from his famous painting, despite many fans , disciples and imitators.
Among the masters of the older generation, I.I. Shishkin represented with his art an exceptional phenomenon, which was not known in the field of landscape painting in previous eras. Like many Russian artists, he naturally possessed enormous natural talent.
Shishkin was born on January 13 (25), 1832 in Elabuga - a small provincial town, located on the high bank of the Kama. An impressionable, inquisitive, gifted boy found an irreplaceable friend in his father. A poor merchant, I.V. Shishkin was a man of versatile knowledge. He instilled an interest in antiquity, nature, and reading books in his son, encouraging the boy’s love of drawing, which awoke very early.

Self-portrait 1854. Paper, graphite. pencil

In 1848, having shown a certain independence and not finishing the Kazan gymnasium, the young man returned to Father's house.
Shishkin began systematic studies at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture only at the age of twenty, having difficulty overcoming the patriarchal foundations of the family, which opposed (with the exception of his father) his desire to become an artist.

In August 1852, he was already included in the list of students admitted to the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, where until January 1856 he studied under the guidance of Apollo Mokritsky. Being an academician, Mokritsky adhered to strict rules of drawing and form construction, that is, what his young student firmly internalized throughout his life. But the same academic method presupposed strict adherence to the rules, and not the search for something new.

A Walk in the Woods 1869

At school, Shishkin’s attraction to landscape was immediately apparent. The richness and diversity of plant forms fascinates Shishkin. Constantly studying nature, in which everything seemed interesting to him, be it an old stump, a snag, a dry tree. The artist constantly painted in the forest near Moscow - in Sokolniki, studying the shape of plants, penetrating the anatomy of nature and doing this with great passion.

By the time he graduated from college at the very beginning of 1856, the creative interests of Shishkin, who stood out among his comrades for his outstanding talent, were noticeably defined. As a landscape painter, he had already acquired some professional skills.

But the artist strived for further improvement and in January 1856 he went to St. Petersburg to enter the Academy of Arts. From now on creative biography Shishkina is closely connected with the capital, where he lived until the end of his days.

Alley summer garden in St. Petersburg 1869

At the Academy of Arts, Shishkin quickly stood out among his students for his preparedness and brilliant abilities. Shishkin focused his attention on fragments of nature, and therefore carefully examined, probed, studied every stem, tree trunk, trembling foliage on the branches, perked grass and soft mosses.

Birch Grove 1880-1890

The inspiration of the natural scientist guided the artist’s brush. The artist discovered a vast world of unremarkable components of nature, previously not included in the circulation of art. Just over three months after admission, he attracted the attention of professors with his full-scale landscape drawings. In 1857, he received two small silver medals - for the painting “In the vicinity of St. Petersburg” (1856) and for drawings executed in the summer in Dubki.

"In the vicinity of St. Petersburg" (1856)

During his studies at the Academy of Arts, Shishkin showed symptoms of imitation less than others, but some influences also affected him. This applies primarily to the work of the extremely popular Swiss landscape painter A. Kalam in his time, a shallow artist who lovingly studied Alpine nature and knew how to outwardly poetize it.

In the grove 1869

The works of young Shishkin, created during his years studying at the Academy, are noted romantic features, however that was more like a tribute dominant tradition.

I.I.Shishkin and A.V.Gine in a workshop on the island of Valaam

The real school for Shishkin was Valaam, which served as a place summer job on location for academic landscape painting students. Shishkin was fascinated by the wild, virgin nature of the picturesque and harsh archipelago of the Valaam Islands with its granite rocks, centuries-old pines and spruces.

Forest in the evening. 1869.

The study "Pine on Valaam" - one of eight awarded a silver medal in 1858 - gives an idea of ​​the passion with which the artist approaches the depiction of nature.
In nature itself, Shishkin is looking for such motives that would allow it to be revealed in objective significance, and tries to reproduce them at the level of pictorial completeness, which can be clearly judged from another sketch of the same series - “View on the Island of Valaam” (1858) .

This sketch, rather dry in painting, but indicating good mastery of drawing, formed the basis for Shishkin’s competition painting “View on the island of Valaam. The area of ​​​​Cucco,” which was shown at the academic exhibition in 1860 and awarded the Big Gold Medal.

"View on the island of Valaam. Kukko area"

Having graduated from the Academy with a Big Gold Medal in 1860, Shishkin received the right to travel abroad as a pensioner.

Dresden. Augustus Bridge

The first signs of internal dissatisfaction with his position, and perhaps even with the established painting method, appeared very clearly in Shishkin already in next year upon returning from abroad.

Italian boy

Beech forest in Switzerland 1863

He spent the summer of 1866 in Moscow and worked in Bratsevo together with L.L. Kamenev, his friend at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture.

Ferns in the forest. Siverskaya 1883

Collaboration with a landscape painter from the Moscow school, who is sincerely fascinated by the motifs of the flat Russian landscape, does not pass without a trace. In addition to Shishkin’s light-colored drawings with the signature “Bratsevo” that have come down to us, free from the constraint of his academic manner, the main thing, of course, were the pictorial sketches he executed, in one of which the motif of a ripening rye field and road was captured, which later served as basis for the painting "Noon. In the vicinity of Moscow" (State Tretyakov Gallery), with golden fields of ripening rye, specifically inscribed distant plans, a road coming from the depths, and a high sky stretched above the ground with light cumulus clouds.

Landscape with a hunter. Valaam Island 1867

In 1867, the artist again went to the legendary Valaam. Shishkin went to Valaam with seventeen-year-old Fyodor Vasilyev, whom he took care of and taught painting.
The epic of the Russian forest, an inevitable and essential part of Russian nature, began in Shishkin’s work, essentially, with the painting “Cutting the Forest” (1867).

"Cutting Wood" (1867)

In the summer of 1868, Shishkin left for his homeland, Elabuga, to receive his father’s blessing for his wedding to Evgenia Alexandrovna Vasilyeva, the artist’s sister.
In September of the same year, Shishkin submitted two landscapes to the Academy of Arts, hoping to receive the title of professor. Instead, the artist was presented to the order, which, apparently, was annoyed.

The theme of the Russian forest after “Cutting the Forest” continued and did not dry out until the end of the artist’s life. In the summer of 1869, Shishkin worked on several paintings in preparation for an academic exhibition. The painting "Noon. In the vicinity of Moscow" stood out from the general order.

I. I. Shishkin. "Noon. In the vicinity of Moscow." 1869. Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow.

In September-October 1869 it was exhibited at an academic exhibition and, apparently, was not acquired. Therefore, Pavel Tretyakov, in a letter to the artist, asked him to leave the painting behind him. Shishkin gratefully agreed to give it to the collection for 300 rubles - the amount offered by Tretyakov.

Forest landscape with herons 1870

Starting from the 1st Traveling Exhibition, throughout the entire twenty-five years, Shishkin participated in exhibitions with his paintings, which today make it possible to judge the evolution of the landscape painter’s skill.
Shishkin spent the summer of 1871 in his homeland. At the beginning of 1872, at a competition organized by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg, Shishkin presented the painting “Mast Forest in the Vyatka Province.” The title itself allows us to connect this work with the nature of our native land, and the time of collecting the material - with the summer of 1871.

"Mast forest in Vyatka province"

Shishkin's painting was acquired by P.M. Tretyakov and became part of his gallery. Kramskoy, in a letter dated April 10, 1872, notifying Tretyakov about the dispatch of the paintings, calls Shishkin’s painting “the most remarkable work of the Russian school.” Becoming one of the founders of the Partnership of Mobile art exhibitions, Shishkin became friends with Konstantin Savitsky, Ivan Kramskoy, and later - in the 1870s - with Arkhip Kuindzhi.

Portrait of I.I. Shishkin. Kramskoy I.N.

The creative life of Ivan Shishkin for a long number of years (especially in the 70s) took place before Kramskoy’s eyes. Usually, from year to year, both artists settled together during the summer, somewhere among the nature of central Russia.

Annunciation Cathedral and gymnasium on Blagoveshchenskaya Square in Nizhny Novgorod 1870

First snow. 1875

In April 1874, Shishkin’s first wife, Evgenia Alexandrovna (sister of Fyodor Alexandrovich Vasilyev), died, and after her little son. Under the weight of personal experiences, Shishkin sank for some time, moved away from Kramskoy and quit working.

Before the Storm 1884

He settled in the village, again became friends with classmates at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture and the Academy of Arts, who often drank with him. Shishkin’s powerful nature overcame difficult emotional experiences, and already in 1875, at the 4th Traveling Exhibition, Shishkin was able to give a number of paintings, one of which (“Spring in pine forest") again evoked enthusiastic praise from Kramskoy.

Swiss landscape 1866

In the seventies, Shishkin became increasingly interested in etching. The intaglio printing technique, which allows him to draw freely without any physical effort, turned out to be especially close to him - he could maintain a free and lively style of line drawing.

At the church fence. Valaam 1867

While many artists used etching to reproduce their paintings, for Shishkin the art of etching became an independent and important area of ​​creativity.

Myasoedov Grigory. First print. Portrait of I.I. Shishkina

In some works the artist achieves a high poetic generalization while maintaining the same care in conveying details. For the seventies, such a picture was “Rye” (1878). The painting was painted after the artist’s trip to Yelabuga in 1877. Throughout his life, he constantly came to his father’s land, where he seemed to draw new creative strength. The very name “Rye” to a certain extent expresses the essence of what is depicted, where everything is so wisely simple, and at the same time significant. This work is involuntarily associated with the poems of A.V. Koltsov and N.A. Nekrasov - two poets whom Shishkin especially loved.

The painting “Rye” completed the conquests of Shishkin, an epic landscape painter, in the seventies.
In the seventies, there was a rapid process of development of landscape painting, enriching it with new talents. Next to Shishkin, he exhibits his eight at five traveling exhibitions. famous paintings A.I.Kuindzhi, developing a completely unusual painting system.

The artistic images created by Shishkin and Kuindzhi, their creative methods, the techniques, as well as the teaching system subsequently, were sharply different, which did not detract from the dignity of each of them. While Shishkin was characterized by a calm contemplation of nature in all the ordinariness of its manifestations, Kuindzhi was characterized by a romantic perception of it; he was fascinated mainly by the effects of lighting and the color contrasts caused by them.
In the 80s, Shishkin created many paintings, in the subjects of which he still turned mainly to the life of the Russian forest, Russian meadows and fields, however, also touching on such motifs as the Baltic sea coast. The main features of his art are preserved even now, but the artist by no means remains motionless. creative positions, developed by the end of the seventies.

Such canvases as “A Stream in the Forest (On a Slope”) (1880),

"Reserve. Pinery" (1881),

"Pine Forest" (1885),

Oak Grove 1887

and others are similar in nature to the works of the previous decade. However, they are interpreted with greater pictorial freedom.

Self-portrait 1886

Serious attention Shishkin pays attention to the textural design of his works, skillfully combining underpainting with the use of glaze and body paints, diversifying the strokes applied with various brushes. His form modeling becomes extremely accurate and confident.

Two female figures 1880s

Advances in color were achieved by Shishkin primarily and to the greatest extent in sketches, in the process of direct communication with nature. It is no coincidence that Shishkin’s friends, the Itinerant artists, found his sketches no less interesting than his paintings, and sometimes even more fresh and colorful. Meanwhile, in addition to “Pines illuminated by the sun” and the richly painted, extremely expressive landscape “Oaks. Evening”, many excellent sketches by Shishkin best time his works are almost not mentioned in art history literature.

These include “A Corner of an Overgrown Garden. Dry Grass” (1884), “Forest (Shmetsk near Narva)”, “On the Shores of the Gulf of Finland (Udrias near Narva)” (both 1888), “On Sandy Ground. Hovi in ​​Finnish railway" (1889, 90?), "Young pines near a sandy cliff. Mary-Hovi on the Finnish Railway" (1890) and whole line others.

All of them are distinguished by a heightened sense of the form and texture of objects, a subtle gradation of nearby shades of color, freedom and variety of painting techniques while maintaining a strict, realistically accurate drawing.
Shishkin's numerous sketches, on which he worked especially enthusiastically during his creative heyday, testify to his sensitivity to the development trends of Russian art in the last decades of the 19th century, when interest in works of a sketch nature as a special pictorial form was growing.

Fog in the forest

In the eighties and nineties, the artist was increasingly attracted by the changing states of nature and quickly passing moments. Thanks to his interest in the light-air environment, in color, he is now more successful than before in this kind of work. An example of this is a painting that is poetic in motif and harmonious in painting" Foggy morning" (1885).
Among all the artist’s works, the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” is the most widely known.

The idea was suggested to Shishkin by K.A. Savitsky, but the possibility cannot be ruled out that the impetus for the appearance of this canvas was the 1888 landscape “Fog in a Pine Forest”, painted, in all likelihood, like “Windfall”, after a trip to the Vologda forests. Apparently, “Fog in a Pine Forest,” which was successfully exhibited at a traveling exhibition in Moscow (now in a private collection in Czechoslovakia), gave rise to a mutual desire among Shishkin and Savitsky to paint a landscape with a similar motif, including a unique genre scene with frolicking bears.

After all, the leitmotif of the famous painting of 1889 is precisely the fog in a pine forest.
The entertaining genre motif introduced into the film largely contributed to its popularity, but true value The work was a beautifully expressed state of nature. This is not just a dense pine forest, but a morning in the forest with its fog that has not yet dissipated, with the lightly pinked tops of huge pines, and cold shadows in the thickets. You can feel the depth of the ravine, the wilderness. The presence of a bear family located on the edge of this ravine gives the viewer a feeling of remoteness and deafness of the wild forest.

At the turn of the eighties and nineties, Shishkin turned to the relatively rare topic of winter torpor of nature for him and wrote big picture"Winter" (1890), posing in it the difficult task of conveying barely noticeable reflexes and almost monochrome painting.

On the eve of the 20th century, when various movements and trends emerged, and new artistic styles, forms and techniques were being searched for, Shishkin continued to confidently follow his once chosen path, creating life-true, meaningful and typical images of Russian nature. A worthy completion of his integral and original creativity was the painting " Ship Grove" (1898) - a canvas that is classic in its completeness and versatility artistic image, perfection of composition. This landscape is based on life studies, made by Shishkin in his native Kama forests, where he found his ideal - a synthesis of harmony and greatness. But the work also embodies the deepest knowledge of Russian nature that was accumulated by the master over almost half a century of creative life.

The painting “Ship Grove” (the largest in size in Shishkin’s work) is, as it were, the last, final image in the epic he created, symbolizing the heroic Russian strength. The implementation of such a monumental plan as this work indicates that the sixty-six-year-old artist was in full bloom of his creative powers, but this was where his path in art ended.
On March 8 (20), 1898, he died in his studio at the easel, on which stood a new, just begun painting, “The Forest Kingdom.”

Tikhvin Cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Necropolis of Art Masters

Elabuga city monument to Shishkin

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Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is rightfully considered a great landscape artist. He, like no one else, managed to convey through his canvases the beauty of the pristine forest, the endless expanses of fields, and the cold of a harsh region. When looking at his paintings, one often gets the impression that a breeze is about to blow or the cracking of branches is heard. Painting occupied all the artist’s thoughts so much that he even died with a brush in his hand, sitting at his easel.

Unlike his other paintings, the artist did not paint this alone. The bears are by Konstantin Savitsky. Ivan Shishkin judged fairly, and both artists signed the painting. However, when the finished canvas was brought to the buyer Pavel Tretyakov, he became angry and ordered Savitsky’s name to be erased, explaining that he had ordered the painting only from Shishkin, and not from two artists.

Ivan Shishkin short biography famous Russian artist is presented in this article.

Ivan Shishkin biography briefly

Famous paintings by Shishkin:“Autumn”, “Rye”, “Morning in a Pine Forest”, “Before the Storm” and others.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was born on January 13 (25), 1832 in Elabuga, a small town, in the family of a poor merchant.

From childhood I was fond of drawing. His parents tried to attract him to trade, but to no avail.

In 1852, he went to Moscow to enter the School of Painting and Sculpture, and here for the first time he attended a serious school of drawing and painting. Shishkin read and thought a lot about art and came to the conclusion that an artist needs to study nature and follow it.

In Moscow he studied under the guidance of Professor A. A. Mokritsky. In 1856–60 continues his studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts with the landscape painter S. M. Vorobyov. Its development is proceeding rapidly. He worked with other young landscape painters on the island of Valaam. Shishkin receives all possible awards for his successes.

In 1860 he was awarded the Great Gold Medal for the landscape “View on the Island of Valaam”. Receiving the Big Gold Medal upon graduating from the Academy in 1860 gave Shishkin the right to travel abroad, but first he went to Kazan and further to the Kama. I wanted to visit my native land. Only in the spring of 1862 did he go abroad.

For 3 years he lived in Germany and Switzerland. He studied in the workshop of the painter and engraver K. Roller. Even before his trip he was known as a brilliant draftsman. In 1865, for the painting “View of the Neighborhood of Düsseldorf” he received the title of academician. Since 1873 he became a professor of art.

I. I. Shishkin was the first of the second Russian landscape painters half of the 19th century century, which gave great value sketch from life. Theme of solemn and clear beauty native land was the main one for him.

Shishkin was engaged not only in drawing, but also in 1894 began teaching at the Higher Art School at the Academy of Arts, and knew how to appreciate talent.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898) - Russian landscape artist, painter, draftsman and engraver. Representative of the Dusseldorf Art School. Academician (1865), professor (1873), head of the landscape workshop (1894-1895) of the Academy of Arts. Founding member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.

Biography of Ivan Shishkin

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is a famous Russian artist (landscape artist, painter, engraver) and academician.

Ivan was born in the city of Elabuga in 1832 into a merchant family. The artist received his first education at the Kazan gymnasium. After studying there for four years, Shishkin entered one of the Moscow painting schools.

After graduating from this school in 1856, he continued his education at the Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg. Within the walls of this institution, Shishkin received knowledge until 1865. Except academic drawing the artist also honed his skills outside the Academy, in various picturesque places in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. Now the paintings of Ivan Shishkin are valued more highly than ever.

In 1860, Shishkin received an important award - the gold medal of the Academy. The artist is heading to Munich. Then - to Zurich. Everywhere he works in the workshops of the most famous artists that time. For the painting “View in the vicinity of Dusseldorf” he soon received the title of academician.

In 1866, Ivan Shishkin returned to St. Petersburg. Shishkin, traveling around Russia, then presented his paintings at various exhibitions. He painted a lot of paintings of a pine forest, among the most famous are “A Stream in the Forest”, “Morning in a Pine Forest”, “Pine Forest”, “Fog in a Pine Forest”, “Reserve. Pinery". The artist also showed his paintings at the Association of Traveling Exhibitions. Shishkin was a member of the aquafortist circle. In 1873, the artist received the title of professor at the Academy of Arts, and after some time he was the head of a training workshop.

Works of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin

Early creativity

For early works masters (“View on the Island of Valaam”, 1858, Kiev Museum of Russian Art; “Cutting Wood”, 1867, Tretyakov Gallery) are characterized by some fragmentation of forms; adhering to the “scene” structure of the picture, traditional for romanticism, clearly marking the plans, he still does not achieve a convincing unity of the image.

In such films as “Noon. In the vicinity of Moscow" (1869, ibid.), this unity appears as an obvious reality, primarily due to the subtle compositional and light-air-coloristic coordination of the zones of sky and earth, soil (Shishkin felt the latter especially soulfully, in this regard not having equal in Russian landscape art).

Maturity

In the 1870s. Ivan Shishkin was entering a time of unconditional creative maturity, as evidenced by the paintings “Sosnovy Bor. Mast forest in the Vyatka province" (1872) and "Rye" (1878; both - Tretyakov Gallery).

Usually avoiding the unstable, transitional states of nature, the artist Ivan Shishkin captures its highest summer flowering, achieving impressive tonal unity precisely due to the bright, midday, summer light that determines the entire color scale. Monumental-romantic image of Nature with capital letters is invariably present in the paintings. New, realistic trends appear in the soulful attention with which the signs of a specific piece of land, a corner of a forest or field, or a specific tree are written down.

Ivan Shishkin is a remarkable poet not only of the soil, but also of the tree, with a keen sense of the character of each species [in his most typical entries he usually mentions not just a “forest”, but a forest of “sedge, elms and partly oaks” (diary of 1861) or “forest spruce, pine, aspen, birch, linden” (from a letter to I.V. Volkovsky, 1888)].

Rye Pine forest Among the flat valleys

With particular desire, the artist paints the most powerful and strong species, such as oaks and pines - in the stages of maturity, old age and, finally, death in the windfall. Classic works Ivan Ivanovich - such as “Rye” or “Among the Flat Valley...” (the painting is named after the song by A.F. Merzlyakov; 1883, Kiev Museum of Russian Art), “Forest Distances” (1884, Tretyakov Gallery) - are perceived as generalized, epic images of Russia.

The artist Ivan Shishkin is equally successful in both distant views and forest “interiors” (“Pines illuminated by the sun”, 1886; “Morning in a pine forest” where bears were painted by K. A. Savitsky, 1889; both in the same place). His drawings and sketches, which represent a detailed diary of natural life, have independent value.

Interesting facts from the life of Ivan Shishkin

Shishkin and the bears

Did you know that Ivan Shishkin did not write his masterpiece dedicated to bears in the forest alone?

An interesting fact is that to depict the bears, Shishkin attracted famous animal painter Konstantin Savitsky, who coped with the task excellently. Shishkin fairly assessed his companion’s contribution, so he asked him to put his signature under the painting next to his own. It was in this form that the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” was brought to Pavel Tretyakov, who managed to buy the painting from the artist during the work process.

Seeing the signatures, Tretyakov was indignant: they say he ordered the painting from Shishkin, and not from a tandem of artists. Well, he ordered the second signature to be washed away. So they put up a painting with the signature of one Shishkin.

Under the influence of the priest

There was another one from Yelabuga amazing person- Kapiton Ivanovich Nevostroev. He was a priest, served in Simbirsk. Noticing his passion for science, the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy invited Nevostroev to move to Moscow and begin describing the Slavic manuscripts stored in the Synodal library. They started together, and then Kapiton Ivanovich continued alone and gave scientific description all historical documents.

So, it was Kapiton Ivanovich Nevostroev who had the strongest influence on Shishkin (like Elabuga residents, they kept in touch in Moscow). He said: “The beauty that surrounds us is the beauty of divine thought diffused in nature, and the artist’s task is to convey this thought as accurately as possible on his canvas.” This is why Shishkin is so meticulous in his landscapes. You won't confuse him with anyone.

Tell me as an artist to an artist...

– Forget the word “photographic” and never associate it with the name Shishkin! – Lev Mikhailovich was indignant when I asked about the stunning accuracy of Shishkin’s landscapes.

– A camera is a mechanical device that simply captures a forest or field in given time under this lighting. Photography is soulless. And in every stroke of the artist there is a feeling that he experiences for the surrounding nature.

So what is the secret of a great painter? After all, looking at his “Stream in a Birch Forest,” we clearly hear the murmur and splash of water, and while admiring “Rye,” we literally feel the blow of the wind on our skin!

“Shishkin knew nature like no one else,” the writer shares. “He knew plant life very well; to some extent he was even a botanist. One day Ivan Ivanovich came to Repin’s workshop and, looking at him new picture, where rafts were depicted floating on a river, I asked what kind of wood they were made of. "Who cares?!" – Repin was surprised. And then Shishkin began to explain that the difference is great: if you build a raft from one tree, the logs can swell, if from another, they will sink, but from a third, you will get a serviceable floating craft! His knowledge of nature was phenomenal!

You don't have to be hungry

“An artist must be hungry,” says a well-known aphorism.

“Indeed, the conviction that an artist should be far from everything material and engage exclusively in creativity is firmly entrenched in our minds,” says Lev Anisov. – For example, Alexander Ivanov, who wrote “The Appearance of Christ to the People,” was so passionate about his work that he sometimes drew water from the fountain and was content with a crust of bread! But still, this condition is far from necessary, and it certainly did not apply to Shishkin.

While creating his masterpieces, Ivan Ivanovich, nevertheless, lived life to the fullest and did not experience great financial difficulties. He was married twice, loved and appreciated comfort. And he was loved and appreciated beautiful women. And this despite the fact that to people who didn’t know him well, the artist gave the impression of an extremely reserved and even gloomy subject (at school, for this reason, he was even nicknamed “the monk”).

In fact, Shishkin was bright, deep, versatile personality. But only in a narrow company of close people did his true essence emerge: the artist became himself and turned out to be talkative and humorous.

Fame came very early

Russian – yes, but not only Russian! – history knows many examples when great artists, writers, composers received recognition from the general public only after death. In the case of Shishkin, everything was different.

By the time he graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Shishkin was well known abroad, and when the young artist studied in Germany, his works were already being sold and bought well! There is a known case when the owner of a Munich shop did not agree to part with several of Shishkin’s drawings and etchings that decorated his shop for any money. Fame and recognition came to the landscape painter very early.

Noon Artist

Shishkin is an artist of the afternoon. Usually artists love sunsets, sunrises, storms, fogs - all these phenomena are really interesting to paint. But to write midday, when the sun is at its zenith, when you don’t see shadows and everything merges, is aerobatics, the pinnacle artistic creativity! To do this you need to feel nature so subtly! In all of Russia, perhaps, there were five artists who could convey all the beauty of the midday landscape, and among them was Shishkin.

In any hut there is a reproduction of Shishkin

Living not far from the painter’s native place, we, of course, believe (or hope!) that he reflected exactly them in his canvases. However, our interlocutor was quick to disappoint. The geography of Shishkin's works is extremely wide. While studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, he painted Moscow landscapes - visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, worked a lot in the Losinoostrovsky forest, Sokolniki. While living in St. Petersburg, he traveled to Valaam and Sestroretsk. Having become a venerable artist, he visited Belarus - he painted in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Shishkin also worked a lot abroad.

However, in last years During his life, Ivan Ivanovich often visited Yelabuga and also wrote local motifs. By the way, one of his most famous, textbook landscapes – “Rye” – was painted just somewhere not far from his native place.

“He saw nature through the eyes of his people and was loved by the people,” says Lev Mikhailovich. - In any village house in a prominent place one could find a reproduction of his works, “Among the Flat Valley...”, “In the Wild North...”, “Morning in a Pine Forest,” torn from a magazine.

Bibliography

• F. Bulgakov, “Album of Russian painting. Paintings and drawings by I. I. Sh.” (SPb., 1892);
• A. Palchikov, “List of printed sheets of I. I. Sh.” (SPb., 1885)
• D. Rovinsky, " Detailed dictionary Russian engravers of the 16th-19th centuries." (vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1885).
• I. I. Shishkin. "Correspondence. Diary. Contemporaries about the artist." L., Art, 1984. - 478 pp., 20 sheets. ill., portrait. — 50,000 copies.
• V. Manin Ivan Shishkin. M.: White City, 2008, p.47 ISBN 5-7793-1060-2
• I. Shuvalova. Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. St. Petersburg: Artists of Russia, 1993
• F. Maltseva. Masters of Russian landscape: Second half of the 19th century. M.: Art, 1999

When writing this article, materials from the following sites were used:en.wikipedia.org ,

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