Today we will talk about the brightest, most talented representative of Russian art, a Russian landscape painter, a follower of the Düsseldorf art school, an engraving draftsman and aquafortist Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. The genius of the brush was born in the winter of 1832 in the city of Yelabuga in the family of a noble merchant Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin. From childhood, living on the outskirts of the village, Ivan Shishkin admired the expanses of yellow fields, the breadth of green forests, the blueness of lakes and rivers. Having matured, all these native landscapes did not go out of the guy’s head and he decided to learn to be a painter. As you can see, he did it perfectly and the master left behind a huge mark in the history of Russian culture and painting. His brilliant works are so natural and beautiful that they are known not only in his homeland, but also far beyond its borders.

And now we will tell about his work in more detail:

"Morning in a Pine Forest" (1889)

Everyone knows this work by Ivan Shishkin, the master of the brush painted forest thickets and paths a lot, but this picture is the most beloved, because the composition includes playful and wonderful cubs playing in a clearing near a broken tree, which make the work kind and sweet. Few people know that the authors of this canvas were two artists Konstantin Savitsky (painted bear cubs) and Ivan Shishkin (depicted a forest landscape), but a collector named Tretyakov erased Savitsky's signature and Shishkin alone is considered the author of the painting.

By the way, on our website there is a fascinating article with very beautiful ones. We recommend viewing.

"Birch Grove" (1878)

The artist simply could not fail to embody the Russian folk beauty, a slender, tall birch, on the canvas, which is why he painted this work, where he depicted not one black and white beauty, but a whole grove. The forest seemed to have just woken up, and the glade was filled with morning light, the sun's rays play among the white trunks, and passers-by are walking along the winding path leading into the forest, admiring the beautiful morning landscape.

"Brook in a birch forest" (1883)

Paintings by Ivan Shishkin can rightly be considered real masterpieces, because he so skillfully conveyed in them all the subtleties of nature, the glare of the sun's rays, tree species, and even, it seems, the noise of foliage and the singing of birds. So this canvas conveys the murmur of a stream in a birch grove, as if you yourself found yourself among this landscape and admire this beauty.

"In the Wild North" (1890)

The master adored the snowy winter, so his collection of canvases also includes winter landscapes. A beautiful spruce is covered with snow in the wild north in a huge snowdrift, beautifully standing in the midst of a winter desert. When you look at this winter beauty, you want to drop everything, grab a sled and start down a slippery hill through the cold snow.

"Amanita" (1878-1879)

See how naturally the fly agaric mushrooms are depicted in this picture, how accurately the colors and curves are conveyed, as if they are just about very close to us, you just have to stretch out your hand. Handsome fly agaric, oh what a pity that they are so poisonous!

"Two female figures" (1880)

Women's beauty cannot be hidden from the male gaze, and even more so from the artist. So the painter Shishkin depicted on his canvas two graceful female figures in fashionable outfits (red and black) with umbrellas in their hands, walking along a forest path. It is noticeable that these charming ladies are in high spirits, because the charm of nature and the fresh forest air are certainly conducive to this.

"Before the Storm" (1884)

Looking at this picture, the fact that all this is drawn from memory, and not from nature, is amazing. Such precise work requires a lot of time and effort from the artist, and the elements can break out in a matter of minutes. See how many shades of blue and green are here and how accurately the mood of the approaching thunderstorm is depicted, that you seem to feel the full weight of the humid air.

Ivan Shishkin often saw this landscape live, as in the village everyone woke up before dawn. The way the morning fog descended on the meadows and fields brought him complete delight and amazement; Sky, earth and water - the three most important elements that harmoniously complement each other - this is the main idea of ​​the picture. Nature seems to wake up from sleep and wash itself with morning dew, and the river starts its winding path again, reaching the depths, that's what comes to mind when you look at this Shishkin's picture.

"View of Yelabuga" (1861)

Ivan Shishkin never forgot where he came from and loved his native land very much. That is why he often painted his hometown Yelabuga. This picture is executed in black and white, and the genre of a sketch or sketch, sketched with a simple pencil, seemingly unusual for a brush master, but, as we see, Shishkin painted not only in oil and watercolor. TopCafe also encourages you not to forget the places where you come from and sometimes return there.

Each natural phenomenon did not go unnoticed by the artist, even light and fluffy clouds, which he loved to watch, and draw even more so. It would seem that eternally floating, blue featherbeds can tell, but the painter was able to tell the story of the movement and life path of fabulously beautiful celestial bodies.

"Bull" (1863)

The landscape painter loved to draw animals, which he loved very much from childhood. This genre in the art of drawing is called "animalism". How naturally the little bull turned out, looking at this canvas I want to go up to him and pat him on the back, but, unfortunately, this is just a drawing.

"Rye" (1878)

One of the most famous landscapes of Shishkin after the painting "Morning in a Pine Forest". Everything is very simple: a sunny summer day, golden rye is earing in the field, and tall giant pines are visible in the distance, the field is divided by a winding road leading into the depths of the forest. The landscape is very familiar to everyone who was born in the countryside, looking at it, it seems that you found yourself at home. Beautiful, natural and very realistic.

"Peasant woman with cows" (1873)

Living in the outback and seeing everything with his own eyes, the painter could not help but depict the complexity of peasant life and hard peasant labor. The work is drawn in the style of a sketch in black and white pencil, which gives it a certain prescription or antiquity. Peasants have long been associated with land, cattle breeding and crafts, but this only elevates them in our eyes, and artists help us see all the connection and beauty by depicting beautiful and realistic paintings.

As we can see, the painter was able to beautifully depict not only his favorite forest landscapes, but also portraits, which, unfortunately, are almost non-existent in his collection. This work is dedicated, I would say, to a well-fed, ruddy Italian boy and his spotted calf. It is a pity that the year of writing the work itself and its further fate is unknown.

The very name of the picture speaks of what the artist wanted to convey to us, seeing such pictures live, Ivan Ivanovich was very upset, because he adored the trees and nature around him. He was against the fact that man invades nature and destroys everything around him. With this work, he tried to reach out to humanity and stop the cruel process of deforestation.

"The Herd Under the Trees" (1864)

It seems to me that cows are the most beloved animals of our painter, because in addition to forest groves and edges, among his works, where there are animals, only cows are found, however, not counting the bears on the famous canvas, but as we already know, they were painted by another artist, not Shishkin. Living in the village, I often observed a similar picture, when a herd of cows came for lunch milking and, waiting for their mistresses, settled comfortably under the spreading trees. Apparently, Ivan Shishkin once observed something similar.

"Landscape with a lake" (1886)

Often, the artist is dominated by all sorts of shades of green, but this work is an exception to the rule, here the center of the landscape is a deep blue, transparent lake. As for me, a very beautiful and successful landscape with a lake, it’s a pity that Shishkin painted rivers and lakes very rarely, but how wonderfully they turned out!

"Rocky Shore" (1879)

In addition to his native land, the master of landscapes also loved the sunny Crimea, where every landscape is a real piece of paradise. Shishkin has a whole collection of paintings painted on a sunny peninsula called Crimea. This work is very bright and lively, there is a lot of light, shades and colors, however, as everywhere in the Crimea.

How ugly this word sounds and how skillfully and beautifully our master of landscapes depicted this natural phenomenon. In one work, all shades of brown and dark green (marsh, so to speak) colors are collected. Cloudy and dull, there is not a single cloud in the sky, the sun's rays do not cut through the space, and only two lone herons came to the water.

"Ship Grove" (1898)

The last and greatest work of Shishkin completes a real epic of forest landscapes throughout his life, showing the real heroic strength and beauty of Russian mother nature. Drawing forest expanses, Shishkin tried to glorify and show everyone the boundless Russian lands - the real national wealth of his homeland.

Finally

Even during his lifetime, Ivan Shishkin was dubbed the title of "King of the Forest" and it is understandable why, because among his many paintings, there are most forest landscapes at different times of the year. Why the artist painted mostly forest groves is not clear, because there are a lot of natural paintings, but this is his choice, it's like Aivazovsky once decided to paint only the sea for himself. Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is deservedly considered one of the most talented and beloved Russian artists, and all his works are performed at the highest level. The artist's contribution to Russian art is truly colossal, limitless and truly priceless.

Municipal budgetary institution of additional education

Center for Children's Technical Creativity No. 1 in Ulyanovsk

Report on the topic: "Creativity of I. I. Shishkin"

Designed by:

additional education teacher

Nazarova Yulia Evgenievna

Ulyanovsk,

2017

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898) - Russian landscape painter, painter, draftsman and engraver-aquaphorist. Representative of the Düsseldorf 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 painter, painter, engraver) and academician.

Ivan was born in the city of Yelabuga in 1832 in 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 schools of painting.

After graduating from this school in 1856, he continued his education at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Within the walls of this institution, Shishkin received knowledge until 1865. In addition to academic drawing, the artist also honed his skills outside the Academy, in various picturesque places in the suburbs of St. Petersburg. Now Ivan Shishkin's paintings are highly valued as never before.

In 1860, Shishkin received an important award - the gold medal of the Academy. The artist goes to Munich. Then - to Zurich. Everywhere engaged in the workshops of the most famous artists of that time. For the painting "View in the vicinity of Düsseldorf" he soon received the title of academician.

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

Creativity of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin

Early work

For the early works of the master (“View on the island of Valaam”, 1858, Kyiv Museum of Russian Art; “Cutting a Forest”, 1867, Tretyakov Gallery), some fragmentation of forms is characteristic; adhering to the “stage” construction of the picture, traditional for romanticism, clearly marking out plans, he still does not achieve a convincing unity of the image.

In such paintings as “Noon. In the environs of Moscow” (1869, ibid.), this unity already appears as an obvious reality, primarily due to the subtle compositional and light-air-color coordination of the zones of heaven and earth, soil (Shishkin felt the latter especially penetratingly, in this regard, without having himself equal in Russian landscape art).

Noon. Around Moscow

View on the island of Valaam

felling forest

In the 1870s Ivan Shishkin entered the time of unconditional creative maturity, which is evidenced by the paintings “Pine Forest. Mast forest in the Vyatka province "(1872) and" Rye "(1878; both - Tretyakov Gallery).

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

Ivan Shishkin is a wonderful poet not only of the soil, but also of the tree, who subtly feels the nature of each species [in his most typical notes, he usually mentions not just a “forest”, but a forest of “special trees, elms and part of oaks” (diary of 1861) or “forest spruce, pine, aspen, birch, linden” (from a letter to I.V. Volkovsky, 1888)].

Rye

Pinery

In the middle of the valley

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

The artist Ivan Shishkin equally succeeds in both distant views and forest “interiors” (“Pine trees illuminated by the sun”, 1886; “Morning in a pine forest” where bears were painted by K. A. Savitsky, 1889; both are in the same place). Of independent value are his drawings and sketches, which are a detailed diary of natural life.

Interesting facts from the life of Ivan Shishkin

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

An interesting fact is that for the image of bears, Shishkin attracted the famous animal painter Konstantin Savitsky, who coped with the task excellently. Shishkin quite fairly appreciated the contribution of the companion, so he asked him to put his signature under the picture next to his own. In this form, the canvas “Morning in a Pine Forest” was brought to Pavel Tretyakov, who managed to buy a painting from the artist in the process of work.

Seeing the signatures, Tretyakov was indignant: they say that he ordered the painting to Shishkin, and not to a tandem of artists. Well, he ordered to wash off the second signature. So they put up a picture with the signature of one Shishkin.

Influenced by the priest

Another amazing person came from Yelabuga - Kapiton Ivanovich Nevostroev. He was a priest, served in Simbirsk. Noticing his craving for science, the rector of the Moscow Theological Academy suggested that Nevostroev move to Moscow and start describing the Slavic manuscripts stored in the synodal library. They started together, and then Kapiton Ivanovich continued alone and gave a scientific description of all historical documents.

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

Tell me as an artist to an artist...

– Forget the word "photographic" and never correlate it with the name of Shishkin! - Lev Mikhailovich was indignant at my question about the amazing accuracy of Shishkin's landscapes.

– A camera is a mechanical device that simply captures a forest or field at a given time in a given light. Photography is soulless. And in every stroke of the artist - the feeling that he has for the surrounding nature.

So what is the secret of the great painter? After all, looking at his “Stream in a birch forest”, we clearly hear the murmur and splash of water, and admiring the “Rye”, we literally feel the breath of the wind with our skin

– Shishkin, like no one else, knew nature, - the writer shares. - He knew the life of plants very well, to some extent he was even a botanist. One day, Ivan Ivanovich came to Repin's studio and, looking at his new painting, which depicted rafting on the river, 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 go to the bottom, but from the third, you get a good 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 belief 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 a fountain and was content with a crust of bread! But still, this condition is far from obligatory, and it certainly did not apply to Shishkin.

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

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

Glory caught up very early

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 well sold and bought! There is a known case when the owner of a Munich shop, for no money, agreed to part with several drawings and etchings by Shishkin that adorned his shop. Fame and recognition came to the landscape painter very early.

Noon Artist

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

In any hut - a reproduction of Shishkin

Living not far from the native places of the painter, we, of course, believe (or hope!) that he reflected precisely them on 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. Living in St. Petersburg, he traveled to Valaam, to Sestroretsk. Having become a venerable artist, he visited Belarus - he painted in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Shishkin also worked a lot abroad.

However, in the last years of his life, Ivan Ivanovich often traveled to 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 places.

– He saw nature through the eyes of his people and was loved by the people, - says Lev Mikhailovich. - In any village house, in a conspicuous 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, torn from a magazine.

Literature:

F. Bulgakov, “Album of Russian painting. Paintings and drawings by I. I. Sh.” (St. Petersburg, 1892);

A. Palchikov, "List of printed sheets of I. I. Sh." (St. Petersburg, 1885)

D. Rovinsky, “Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engravers of the 16th-19th Centuries.” (vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1885).

I. I. Shishkin. "Correspondence. A diary. Contemporaries about the artist. L., Art, 1984. - 478 p., 20 sheets. illustration, portrait. - 50,000 copies.

V. Manin Ivan Shishkin. Moscow: White City, 2008, p.47 ISBN 5-7793-1060-2

I. Shuvalova. Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. SPb.: Artists of Russia, 1993

F. Maltseva. Masters of the Russian landscape: the second half of the 19th century. M.: Art, 1999

About creativity

In the treasury of Russian art, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin holds one of the most honorable places. His name is associated with the history of Russian landscape in the second half of the 19th century. The works of the outstanding master, the best of which have become classics of national painting, have gained immense popularity.

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 had a great talent for the nugget. No one before Shishkin, with such stunning openness and with such disarming secrecy, told the viewer about his love for his native land, for the discreet charm of northern nature.

Biography of the master

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was born on January 13 (25), 1832 in Elabuga (Vyatka province) into a poor merchant family. Not having completed his studies at the Kazan gymnasium, Shishkin left it and continued his education at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1852-56), and then at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1856-65). Shishkin I. I. died suddenly, on March 8 (20), 1898 in St. Petersburg, while working on a new painting.

Paintings by Ivan Shishkin

It seemed that in the middle of the 19th century it could be more familiar and ordinary for any
a resident of central Russia than a view of a pine forest or a field of ripe rye? It was necessary for Ivan Shishkin to appear in order to create creations that are still unsurpassed works of landscape art, in which, with amazing clarity, as if for the first time you see new reserved places.

Before us appear lush coniferous thickets, fat fields, the boundless expanse of the Fatherland. No one before Shishkin, with such stunning openness and with such disarming secrecy, told the viewer about his love for his native land, for the discreet charm of northern nature.

Ivan Shishkin - "King of the Forest"

Shishkin was called "the king of the forest", this reveals his devotion to the topic "Russian forest". Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was truly the “king of valer”: the artist was completely subject to the highest sign of easel painting - valer, the ability to paint a picture using the finest nuances of light, shadow, color. the general tone of the picture, determined by a single state in time.

Such canvases seem to be sung in one breath, where there are no rough contours, false effects. There is only imitation of one great artist - nature. In each of the canvases, the artist shows himself to be a wonderful connoisseur of nature, every smallest part of it, whether it be a tree trunk or just sand covered with deadwood. For all their realism, Shishkin's paintings are very harmonious and imbued with a poetic feeling of love for the motherland.

The value of the artist's work

Ivan Shishkin is an artist of great creative passion and determination. He impressed his contemporaries with his efficiency. Heroic growth, strong, healthy, always working - this is how he was remembered by his friends. He died sitting at the easel, working on a new painting. It was March 20, 1898.

The artist left a huge legacy: more than 500 paintings, about 2000 drawings and graphic works.

The entire creative path of Shishkin appears before us as a great feat of a Russian person who, in his works, glorified his homeland, dearly and dearly loved by him. This is the strength of his creativity. This is the guarantee that his paintings will live forever.

“Shishkin is a folk artist,” wrote V.V. Stasov back in 1892. And our people secured this right to the honorary title for Shishkin.

You can download the full version of the finished abstract from the link below.

Let's remember today the work of Ivan Shishkin

“A man-school”, “a milestone in the development of the Russian landscape” - this is how contemporaries wrote about Shishkin. On this day, I propose to remember our, without a doubt, our national treasure, to look at the pictures again, read about this person and look through old photographs.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was born on January 25 (13th according to the old style) in 1832 in Elabuga (Vyatka province) in a poor merchant family. His father, Ivan Vasilyevich, rented a mill and traded grain, but in addition he was passionate about history and archeology, developed and implemented the water supply system in Yelabuga, wrote manuals and books, and restored the city’s old tower with his own money.

Shishkin's father, Ivan Vasilyevich. Portrait of V.P. Vereshchagin

It was the father who encouraged the development of a creative streak in his son - he praised him for his success in drawing, worked with him on wood carving, and eventually sent him to study at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where young Ivan ended up in the class of professor of portraiture A.N. Mokritsky, who noticed the talent of a landscape painter in a young man, and helped him develop in the right direction, which Shishkin later recalled with gratitude.

I.I. Shishkin, self-portrait, 1854

While studying at the Shishkin School, the question was why Italian or Swiss landscapes (including those performed by our artists) are so mesmerizing with color and juiciness, is it possible to achieve the same by painting native expanses. And this “nationality” turned out to be the most appropriate “here and now”: at the same time, other artists increasingly began to turn to everything Russian, and writers did not lag behind. Yes, and realism began to be valued and enjoyed success.

View on the island of Valaam, 1858

Shishkin worked on his paintings with such diligence that sometimes it seems that every blade of grass and every leaf is not left without attention, and often with such precision that it could be used as an illustration in a botanical atlas.

Young growth of walnut, 1870s

Burdocks, 1878

Of course, there were and are those who say that emotions are lost behind such thoroughness, they called him a “photographer” and “copyist”, but time puts everything in its place: how many people in our vast expanse do not know the name of Shishkin, even being completely far from art? Are there many who do not know the author of “that same picture with bears” or “that field of rye”? Shishkin's landscapes have long ceased to be just a phenomenon in art, they are inextricably linked with Russian nature, they are like herself.

Before the storm, 1884

Hut, 1861

Autumn forest, 1876

Landscape with a lake, 1886

In the wild north..., 1891

Foggy morning, 1885

Kama near Yelabuga, 1895

Road in the Rye, 1866

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is deservedly called an excellent draftsman. He did not part with a pencil, and everywhere he sketched everything that seemed interesting to him, whether it was a broken tree branch, clouds, or a dried leaf.

Landscape with carts, early 1870s

stream in the forest

Summer in the field (Shepherd with a flock), early 1860s

Forest river, 1893

Trees in the field. Bratsevo, 1866

Village, 1874

Shishkin's letter to his parents with a sketch, 1858

By the way, he received his first awards precisely for drawing, being a student of the Imperial Academy of Arts, where he entered after graduating from college. His successes were repeatedly marked with medals, and at the end, together with the Big Gold Medal, Shishkin was awarded a three-year trip abroad. True, he left only after 2 years, he was much more occupied by his native places, and he spent time hugging the road album, making sketches from nature.

View of Elabuga, 1861

Abroad, he worked in Germany, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

I.I. Shishkin in Düsseldorf, photograph, 1864/65

Despite all the European beauties, he was drawn home, he wanted to paint Russian nature. Although, it should be noted, on this journey he created the painting “View in the vicinity of Dusseldorf”, for which he was awarded the title of academician.

View near Düsseldorf, 1865

Dresden. Augustus Bridge, 1862

Beech forest in Switzerland, 1863

Swiss landscape, 1866

Upon his return, he travels around Russia, and becomes a member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions along with Repin, Kramskoy, Vasnetsov, Surikov and others. At this time, Shishkin finally formed a recognizable style in which there is no place for romanticization, but there is the beauty of nature itself, and in the late 60s he wrote one of his most famous works - “Noon in the vicinity of Moscow”.

Noon near Moscow, 1869

The artist is madly in love with the forest, regularly going into the wilds from the very early morning, and tirelessly working on sketches and sketches. It should be noted that in his paintings the forest is always majestic, and even solemn.

Forest gatehouse, 1892

Pine forest, 1895

Winter in the Forest (Hoarfrost), 1877

Birch Grove, 1878

Oak Grove, 1887

Meadow at the edge of the forest. Siverskaya, 1887

Deciduous forest edge, 1895

I.I. Shishkin with peasants, photograph, 1890

Often in Shishkin's paintings, nature has truly epic power, and people or animals do not appear too often. It is also not unknown that the bears on the canvas “Morning in a Pine Forest” (1889) were painted not by Shishkin, but by his friend, the artist Konstantin Savitsky, whose signature was removed from the painting by its acquirer Pavel Tretyakov.

Morning in a pine forest, 1889

Shishkin also has many works in which he focuses not on the scale, spaciousness, power of nature, but, on the contrary, on something small, on its individual components - weeds, ferns, pine tops, etc.

Pine tops, 1890s

Flowers by the fence, mid-1880s

Slut-grass. Pargolovo, 1884

Herbs, 1892

In 1873, having painted his next picture - "Wilderness", at the age of 41, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin received the title of professor at the Academy of Arts.

Wilderness, 1872

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was a very fruitful artist, they say about such people "he worked tirelessly."

I.I. Shishkin at work on the painting Mordvin Oaks, photograph, 1891

Ivan Kramskoy. Portrait of I. I. Shishkin. 1873

On one sketch, Shishkin wrote: "Expansion, space, land, rye, God's grace, Russian wealth." And, probably, something similar flashes through the minds of the majority, looking at his famous painting "Rye" (1878).

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was married twice. His first wife was Evgenia Alexandrovna Vasilyeva, the sister of another talented Russian landscape painter Fyodor Vasilyev, through whom he met her, immediately falling in love with a girl. Three children were born in this marriage, but both sons died at a young age, and their mother also survived them for a short time. Shishkin was hard to bear the loss, and only after 7 years he married a second time. His second wife was the artist Olga Antonovna Lagoda, who died a month and a half after the birth of their daughter. Until the end of Shishkin's life, Olga's sister Victoria took care of his two daughters and himself.

"A landscape painter is a true artist, he feels deeper, cleaner ... Nature is always new ... and is always ready to give an inexhaustible supply of its gifts, which we call life. What could 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 mighty nature. From this knowledge and this love, images were born that have long become a kind of 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 man-forester”, he could be compared with “an old strong pine tree overgrown with moss”, but rather, he is like a lonely oak from his famous painting, despite the many admirers , students and imitators.
Among the masters of the older generation, I.I. Shishkin represented an exceptional phenomenon with his art, which was not known in the field of landscape painting in previous eras. Like many Russian artists, he naturally had a great talent for the nugget.
Shishkin was born on January 13 (25), 1832 in Yelabuga, a small provincial town located on the high bank of the Kama. An impressionable, inquisitive, gifted boy found an indispensable 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 to love drawing, which awakened very early.

Self-portrait 1854. Graphite on paper. pencil

In 1848, having shown a certain independence and not graduating from the Kazan gymnasium, the young man returned to his father's house.
Shishkin began systematic studies at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture only at the age of twenty, with 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 Apollon Mokritsky. As an academician, Mokritsky adhered to the strict rules of drawing and form construction, that is, what his young student firmly learned for life. But the same academic method assumed a firm implementation of the rules, and not the search for a new one.

Walk in the forest 1869

At the school, Shishkin's attraction to the landscape was immediately determined. The richness and diversity of plant forms fascinates Shishkin. Inseparably 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 into the anatomy of nature and doing it with great enthusiasm.

By the time he graduated from the school 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 has already acquired some professional skills.

But the artist strove for further improvement and in January 1856 he went to St. Petersburg to enter the Academy of Arts. Since then, Shishkin's creative biography has been closely connected with the capital, where he lived until the end of his days.

Alley of the summer garden in St. Petersburg 1869

At the Academy of Arts, Shishkin quickly stood out among the students with his preparedness and brilliant abilities. Shishkin focused on fragments of nature, in connection with which he carefully examined, probed, studied every stem, tree trunk, trembling foliage on branches, revived grasses and soft mosses.

Birch Grove 1880-1890

The inspiration of the naturalist guided the artist's brush. The artist opened up 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 natural landscape drawings. In 1857, he received two small silver medals - for the painting "In the vicinity of St. Petersburg" (1856) and for drawings made in the summer in Dubki.

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

Shishkin, during his studies at the Academy of Arts, showed symptoms of imitation less than others, but some influences touched him. This applies primarily to the work of the once extremely popular Swiss landscape painter A. Kalam, an artist who was not profound, but who lovingly studied alpine nature, who knew how to poeticize it outwardly.

In the grove 1869

The works of the young Shishkin, created during the years of study at the Academy, are marked by romantic features, but that was rather a tribute to the dominant tradition.

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

Valaam became a real school for Shishkin, serving as a place of summer work on location for academic landscape painters. 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 firs.

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 her to reveal it in objective significance, and tries to reproduce them at the level of pictorial completeness, which can be clearly seen from another sketch of the same series - "View on the island of Valaam" (1858) .

This sketch, rather dry in painting, but testifying to a good command of drawing, formed the basis of Shishkin's competition painting "View on the island of Valaam. The area of ​​Kukko", shown at the academic exhibition of 1860 and awarded the Big Gold Medal.

"View on Valaam island. Kukko area"

After graduating from the Academy with a Grand Gold Medal in 1860, Shishkin received the right to travel abroad as a pensioner.

Dresden. Bridge of Augustus

The first signs of internal dissatisfaction with his position, and possibly with the established pictorial method, manifested themselves very clearly in Shishkin the very next year upon his return from abroad.

Italian boy

Beech forest in Switzerland 1863

He spends the summer of 1866 in Moscow and works in Bratsevo together with LL Kamenev, his friend at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture.

Ferns in the forest. Siverskaya 1883

Collaboration with the landscape painter of the Moscow school, sincerely fascinated by the motifs of the flat Russian landscape, does not pass without a trace. In addition to the bright Shishkin drawings that have come down to us with the signature "Brattsevo", free from the constraint of his academic manner, the main thing, of course, was the picturesque sketches he performed, in one of which the motif of a ripening rye field and a road was captured, which served later, in 1869 the basis for the painting "Noon. In the vicinity of Moscow" (State Tretyakov Gallery), with golden fields of ripening rye, specifically inscribed in the background, 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 together with the seventeen-year-old Fyodor Vasiliev, 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 Down the Forest" (1867)

In the summer of 1868, Shishkin left for his homeland, in Yelabuga, to receive his father's blessing for a wedding with Evgenia Alexandrovna Vasilyeva, the artist's sister.
In September of the same year, Shishkin presented 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 "Deforestation" 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" was knocked out of the general system.

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

In September-October 1869, it was exhibited at an academic exhibition and, apparently, was not purchased. 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, for all 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.
In the summer of 1871, Shishkin lived at home. 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 alone makes it possible to connect this work with the nature of the native land, and the time of collecting the material - with the summer of 1871.

"Mast forest in the 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 of sending the paintings, calls Shishkin's painting "the most remarkable work of the Russian school." Becoming one of the founders of the Association of Traveling 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 series of years (especially in the 70s) took place before the eyes of Kramskoy. Usually, from year to year, both artists settled together in summer, somewhere among the nature of central Russia.

Annunciation Cathedral and gymnasium on Annunciation Square in Nizhny Novgorod 1870

First snow. 1875

In April 1874, Shishkin's first wife, Evgenia Alexandrovna (sister of Fyodor Aleksandrovich Vasiliev), died, followed by her little son. Under the weight of personal experiences, Shishkin sank for a while, moved away from Kramskoy and stopped working.

Before the Storm 1884

He settled in the countryside, again met with classmates at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture and the Academy of Arts, who often drank with him. The powerful nature of Shishkin overcame difficult emotional experiences, and already in 1875, Shishkin was able to give a number of paintings to the 4th Traveling Exhibition, of which one ("Spring in a Pine Forest") again evoked Kramskoy's enthusiastic praise.

Swiss Landscape 1866

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

In some works, the artist achieves a high poetic generalization while maintaining the same thoroughness in the transfer of details. For the seventies, such a picture was "Rye" (1878). The picture was painted after the artist made a trip to Yelabuga in 1877. Throughout his life, he constantly came to his father's land, where he seemed to draw new creative forces. The very name "Rye" to a certain extent expresses the essence of the 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" ends in the seventies with the conquests of Shishkin, a landscape painter of an epic warehouse.
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 famous paintings by A.I. Kuindzhi at five traveling exhibitions, developing a completely unusual pictorial system.

The artistic images created by Shishkin and Kuindzhi, their creative methods, techniques, as well as the teaching system later, differed sharply, which did not detract from the dignity of each of them. While Shishkin was characterized by a calm contemplation of nature in all its ordinary manifestations, Kuindzhi had a romantic perception of it, he was mainly fascinated 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 refers mainly to the life of the Russian forest, Russian meadows and fields, however, touching on such motifs as the Baltic coast. The main features of his art are still preserved, but the artist by no means remains motionless in the creative positions developed by the end of the seventies.

Canvases such as "Stream in the Forest (On the Hillside") (1880),

"Reserve. Pine forest" (1881),

"Pine Forest" (1885),

Oak Grove 1887

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

Self portrait 1886

Shishkin pays serious attention to the texture solution of the works, skillfully combining underpainting with the use of glazing and body paints, a variety of strokes that are applied with different brushes. The modeling of the form becomes extremely precise and confident with him.

Two female figures 1880s

Advances in coloring 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 Wanderers, found his sketches no less interesting than his paintings, and sometimes even more fresh and colorful. Meanwhile, in addition to "Pine Trees Illuminated by the Sun" and the juicy, extremely expressive landscape "Oaks. Evening", many of Shishkin's excellent sketches of the best times of his work are hardly mentioned in art history literature.

These include "Corner of an overgrown garden. Gout-grass" (1884), "Forest (Shmetsk near Narva)", "Off the coast of the Gulf of Finland (Udrias near Narva)" (both 1888), "On sandy ground. Meri- Hovi on the Finnish Railway" (1889, 90?), "Young Pines at the Sandy Cliff. Meri-Hovi on the Finnish Railway" (1890) and a number of others.

All of them are distinguished by a heightened sense of the form and texture of objects, a fine gradation of nearby shades of color, freedom and variety of painting techniques while maintaining a strict, realistically accurate drawing.
Numerous sketches by Shishkin, on which he worked especially enthusiastically at the time of his creative flourishing, testify to his sensitivity to the development trends of Russian art in the last decades of the 19th century, when interest in sketch-type works as a special pictorial form is growing.

Fog in the forest

In the 1980s and 1990s, the artist was increasingly attracted to the changing states of nature, the quickly passing moments. Thanks to his interest in the light-air environment, in color, he now succeeds more than before in such works. An example of this is the painting Misty Morning (1885), poetic in motive and harmonious in painting.
Among all the works of the artist, the painting "Morning in a Pine Forest" is the most widely known.

Its idea was suggested to Shishkin by K.A.Savitsky, but the possibility is not ruled out that the impetus for the appearance of this canvas was the landscape of 1888 "Fog in a pine forest", written, 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 Shishkin and Savitsky's mutual desire to paint a landscape similar in motif with the inclusion of a kind of genre scene with frolicking bears.

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

At the turn of the eighties and nineties, Shishkin turned to the relatively rare theme of the winter numbness of nature for him and painted a large painting "Winter" (1890), setting in it the difficult task of conveying barely noticeable reflexes and almost monochrome painting.

On the eve of the 20th century, when various currents and directions arise, the search for new artistic styles, forms and techniques is underway, Shishkin continues to confidently follow his once chosen path, creating vitally truthful, meaningful and typical images of Russian nature. A worthy conclusion to his integral and original work was the painting "Ship Grove" (1898) - a canvas that is classical in its completeness and versatility of the artistic image, the perfection of the composition. This landscape was based on nature sketches made by Shishkin in his native Kama forests, where he found his ideal - a synthesis of harmony and grandeur. But the work also embodies the deepest knowledge of Russian nature, which 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 realization of such a monumental idea as this work testifies that the sixty-six-year-old artist was in the 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 "Forest Kingdom".

Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. Necropolis of the Masters of Arts

Yelabuga city monument to Shishkin

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