Morning in a pine forest. Description of the painting by Shishkin

Ivan Shishkin glorified not only his native city(Elabuga) to the whole country, but also to the entire vast territory of Russia to the whole world. His most famous painting is "Morning in pine forest". Why is she so famous and why is she considered practically the standard of painting? Let's try to understand this issue.

Shishkin and landscapes

Ivan Shishkin - renowned landscape painter. His unique style of work has its origins in the Düsseldorf School of Drawing. But, unlike most of his colleagues, the artist passed the main techniques through himself, which allowed him to create a unique style that is not inherent in anyone else.

Shishkin admired nature all his life, she inspired him to create numerous masterpieces from a million colors and shades. The artist has always tried to depict the flora as he sees it, without any exaggerations and decorations.

He tried to choose landscapes untouched by human hand. Virgin, like the forests of the taiga. combine realism with a poetic view of nature. Ivan Ivanovich saw poetry in the play of light and shadow, in the power of Mother Earth, in the fragility of one Christmas tree standing in the wind.

The versatility of the artist

It's hard to imagine such brilliant artist the head of the city or the school teacher. But Shishkin combined many talents. Coming from a merchant family, he had to follow in the footsteps of his parent. In addition, Shishkin's good nature quickly endeared him to people throughout the city. He was elected to the post of manager and helped to develop his native Yelabuga as best he could. Naturally, this manifested itself in the writing of paintings. Peru Shishkin owns the "History of the city of Yelabuga".

Ivan Ivanovich managed to paint pictures and participate in fascinating archaeological excavations. For some time he lived abroad, and even became an academician in Düsseldorf.

Shishkin was an active member of the Wanderers, where he met with other famous Russian artists. He was considered a real authority among other painters. They tried to inherit the style of the master, and the paintings inspired both writers and painters.

After himself, he left a memory of numerous landscapes that have become decorations of museums and private collections around the globe.

After Shishkin, few people managed to depict the whole versatility of Russia's nature so realistically and so beautifully. Whatever happened in the artist's personal life, he did not let his troubles be reflected on the canvases.

background

The artist treated forest nature with great trepidation, it literally captivated him with its countless colors, variety of shades, the rays of the sun breaking through thick pine branches.

The painting "Morning in a Pine Forest" became the embodiment of Shishkin's love for the forest. It gained popularity very quickly, and was soon used in pop culture, on stamps, and even on candy wrappers. To this day, it is carefully kept in the Tretyakov Gallery.

Description: "Morning in a pine forest"

Ivan Shishkin managed to capture one moment from a whole forest life. He conveyed with the help of a drawing the moment of the beginning of the day, when the sun had just begun to rise. An amazing moment of the birth of a new life. The painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” depicts an awakening forest and still sleepy bear cubs who are getting out of a secluded dwelling.

In this picture, as in many others, the artist wanted to emphasize the immensity of nature. To do this, he cut off the tops of the pines at the top of the canvas.

If you look closely, you can see that the roots of the tree on which the cubs frolic have been torn out. Shishkin seemed to emphasize that this forest is so unsociable and deaf that only animals can live in it, and the trees fall by themselves, from old age.

In the morning in a pine forest, Shishkin indicated with the help of the fog that we see between the trees. Thanks to this artistic move, the time of day becomes obvious.

co-authorship

Shishkin was an excellent landscape painter, but rarely took on the images of animals in his works. The painting "Morning in a Pine Forest" was no exception. He created the landscape, but the four cubs were painted by another artist, an animal specialist, Konstantin Savitsky. They say that it was he who suggested the very idea for this picture. Drawing morning in a pine forest, Shishkin took Savitsky as a co-author, and the picture was originally signed by the two of them. However, after the canvas was transferred to the gallery, Tretyakov considered Shishkin's work to be more extensive and erased the name of the second artist.

Story

Shishkin and Savitsky went to nature. This is how the story began. The morning in the pine forest seemed so beautiful to them that it was impossible not to immortalize it on canvas. To search for a prototype, they went to Gordomlya Island, which stands on Lake Seliger. They found this landscape and new inspiration for the painting.

The island, all covered with forests, kept the remains of virgin nature. For many centuries it stood untouched. This could not leave artists indifferent.

Claims

The painting was born in 1889. Although initially Savitsky complained to Tretyakov that he erased his name, he soon changed his mind and abandoned this masterpiece in favor of Shishkin.

He substantiated his decision by the fact that the style of the painting fully corresponds to what Ivan Ivanovich did, and even the sketches of the bears originally belonged to him.

Facts and misconceptions

Like any well-known canvas, the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” is of great interest. Consequently, she has a number of interpretations, she is mentioned in literature and in the cinema. This masterpiece is spoken about as in high society as well as on the streets.

Over time, some facts have been changed, and general misconceptions are firmly rooted in society:

• One of the common mistakes is the opinion that Vasnetsov created Morning in a Pine Forest together with Shishkin. Viktor Mikhailovich, of course, was familiar with Ivan Ivanovich, since they were together in the club of the Wanderers. However, Vasnetsov could not be the author of such a landscape. If you pay attention to his style, he is not at all like Shishkin, they belong to different art schools. These names are still mentioned together from time to time. Vasnetsov is not that artist. "Morning in a pine forest", without any doubt, drew Shishkin.
• The name of the painting sounds like "Morning in a pine forest." Bor is just a second name that people seemed to find more appropriate and mysterious.
• Unofficially, some Russians still call the painting "Three Bears", which is a gross mistake. The animals in the picture are not three, but four. It is likely that the canvas began to be called that because of the popular Soviet time sweets called "Bear clubfoot". The wrapper depicted a reproduction of Shishkin's "Morning in a Pine Forest". The people gave the candy the name "Three Bears".
• The picture has its "first version". Shishkin painted another canvas of the same theme. He called it "Fog in the pine forest." Not many people know about this picture. She is rarely remembered. Cloth not available Russian Federation. To this day it is kept in a private collection in Poland.
• Initially, there were only two bear cubs in the picture. Shishkin later decided that four clubfoot must be present in the image. Thanks to the addition of two more bears, the genre of the picture has changed. She began to be on the "borderline", as some elements of the game scene appeared on the landscape.

Morning in a pine forest

The painting by the famous artist I. I. Shishkin depicts early morning in the forest. The pine forest is awakening from sleep, the sun has not yet fully come out and has not had time to warm the clearing. The tall green pines are shrouded in dense fog.

The she-bear with three brown cubs had already woken up and went out to frolic in the forest clearing. The clumsy bear cubs, still quite small, climbed onto a huge fallen tree. It is uprooted from the ground, apparently after a recent hurricane.

One, the most agile bear cub, climbed to the very top of the broken trunk. He is watching the second bear cub, which sits in the middle of the trunk and looks at the bear. The third, apparently the smallest of them, stands on another broken part of a mighty tree, his gaze is directed deep into the forest.

big, brown bear keeps a close eye on the mischievous cubs. She knows that the forest is fraught with many dangers and is ready to protect her children at any moment.

When you look at the picture, it is as if you are immersed in it. You feel the cool breath of the green forest, you hear forest rustles and the sounds that animals, birds and insects make.

The plot of the picture turned out to be alive and quite realistic. Wild nature delights, and funny, little cubs touch and make you want to be in the clearing and play with them.

Composition based on the painting Morning in a pine forest Shishkin

Before me is a creation by I. Shishkin "Morning in a pine forest" (sometimes called "Morning in a pine forest"). This canvas can be called truly the most famous masterpiece, because everyone, both a child and an adult, no doubt knows this beautiful picture.

With unprecedented awe, care and tenderness, the artist skillfully painted every needle of the mighty pines, every root and twig. Inspired by the power and grandeur of nature, he breathed into his creation the unprecedented realism and magic of an ordinary forest morning.

The picture depicts the morning hours in a pine thicket. Nature is just waking up after a cool night, cold dew has fallen on the grass and trees, the air is clean and fresh. The air is still cold, but it is about to warm up, and the smell of rotten grass and pine needles will spread throughout the forest. Surely the day will be hot, and therefore this cool morning is truly wonderful.

There is silence in the gloomy forest, only occasionally the cry of an early bird cuts through the wilderness.

The giant pines, majestically striving into the sky, greet the first rays of the sun, sliding over the tops of the trees, with their bushy branches. Sunrise is an awakening and the beginning of a new day. And all nature is looking forward to his arrival.

Warm golden and yellow hues fascinate, brightly contrasting with the dark palette of a gloomy forest, which creates the image of a mysterious mysterious forest, as if descended from the pages of Russians. folk tales. Muted calm tones do not irritate the eyes, but rather delight the eye.
In the center of the picture are the main characters, without whom the canvas would lose its charm.
The she-bear and her three brave cubs, having woken up with the first rays of the sun, are already in full swing in the forest, prowling in search of food.

Naughty kids started a game - they jump and climb a fallen pine trunk, as if they were playing tag. Fluffy animals look completely defenseless, but under the supervision of their vigilant mother, they are safe. Huge fallen trees, like heroes thrown down in battle, lie high, rearing up their clumsy thick roots, showing their former strength and power with all their appearance.

The brown parent grumbles with displeasure, trying to pacify the naughty children, but nimble little hooligans do not take the mother's angry growls seriously.

Looking at the picture, as if inhaling the aroma of the forest, its pine freshness, you feel the forest shady coolness, you hear the rustle of the breeze, the crackling of branches under strong animal paws.

Together with the inspired creator, imbued with the beauty of Russian nature, the viewer will involuntarily hold his breath, amazed by the deep mystery of life and joy that the landscape radiates.

Ask this essay in 2nd, 5th, 3rd, 7th grade.

Composition "Morning in a pine forest" based on the painting by Shishkin Grade 5

Probably, Shishkin’s painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” is familiar from childhood. Even if you are not deeply interested in art, then almost everyone is familiar with this picture, thanks to its image on candy. She-bear with three cubs on the background of a pine forest.

Shishkin's idea was prompted by his friend, also an artist. And he even had a hand in adding bears to the landscape. They turned out so well that the artists both signed the picture. However, Tretyakov, who later acquired this painting, left only Shishkin's signature, smeared out the second signature. Considering that the main style of writing is still closer in spirit to Shishkin.

And, indeed, Shishkin very accurately conveyed the general atmosphere of the waking forest. We can observe the rays of the rising morning sun, which only touches the tops of the trees. In the depths of the picture, the forest is shrouded in morning mist. And with its lightness and airiness, the observer is given freshness, which usually still stands at this time of day.

In the foreground is a whole bear family. A she-bear and three little cubs frolicking on a large fallen tree. It can be assumed that they just got out of the den after a night's sleep. Still not so playful waking up, but the mother does not doze off and monitors the neighborhood and her pets, growling a little at negligent offspring.

The picture is very positive and its motive, and colors. The artist very accurately conveyed the atmosphere of awakening nature.

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Over the past century, "Morning in a Pine Forest", which rumor, defying the laws of arithmetic, baptized into "Three Bears", has become the most replicated picture in Russia: Shishkin's bears look at us from candy wrappers, greeting cards, wall tapestries and calendars; even of all the cross-stitch kits that are sold in All for Needlework stores, these bears are the most popular.

By the way, what's the morning like here?!

It is known, after all, that this painting was originally called “The Bear Family in the Forest”. And she had two authors - Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky: Shishkin painted the forest, but the bears themselves belonged to the brushes of the latter. But Pavel Tretyakov, who bought this canvas, ordered that the painting be renamed and only one artist, Ivan Shishkin, be left in all catalogs.

- Why? - with such a question, Tretyakov was overcome for many years.

Only once did Tretyakov explain the motives for his action.

- In the picture, - answered the philanthropist, - everything, from the idea to the execution, speaks of the manner of painting, of creative method characteristic of Shishkin.

I.I. Shishkin. Morning in a pine forest.

"Bear" - that was the nickname of Ivan Shishkin himself in his youth.

Huge growth, gloomy and silent, Shishkin always tried to stay away from noisy companies and fun, preferring to walk somewhere in the forest all alone.

He was born in January 1832 in the most bearish corner of the empire - in the city of Yelabuga in the then Vyatka province, in the family of the merchant of the first guild Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin, a local romantic and eccentric, who was fond of not so much grain trade as archaeological research and social activities.

Perhaps that is why Ivan Vasilievich did not scold his son when, after four years of study at the Kazan gymnasium, he quit studying with the firm intention of never returning to study. “Well, I quit and quit,” Shishkin Sr. shrugged his shoulders, “it’s not for everyone to build bureaucratic careers.”

But Ivan was not interested in anything but hiking in the forests. Every time he ran away from home before dawn, but returned after dark. After dinner, he silently locked himself in his room. He had no interest either in women's society, or in the company of his peers, to whom he seemed like a forest savage.

Parents tried to place their son in family business, but Ivan did not express any interest in trade either. Moreover, all merchants deceived and shortchanged him. “Our arithmetic grammarian is idiotic in matters of commerce,” his mother complained in a letter to her eldest son Nikolai.

But then in 1851, Moscow artists appeared in quiet Yelabuga, called to paint the iconostasis in the cathedral church. With one of them - Ivan Osokin - Ivan soon met. It was Osokin who noticed the young man's craving for drawing. He accepted the young Shishkin as an apprentice in the artel, taught him how to cook and stir paints, and later advised him to go to Moscow and study at the School of Painting and Sculpture at the Moscow Art Society.

I.I. Shishkin. Self-portrait.

Relatives, who had already given up on the undergrowth, even perked up when they learned about their son's desire to become an artist. Especially the father, who dreamed of glorifying the Shishkin family for centuries. Indeed, he believed that famous Shishkin he will become himself - as an amateur archaeologist who unearthed the ancient Devil's settlement near Yelabuga. Therefore, his father allocated money for education, and in 1852, 20-year-old Ivan Shishkin went to conquer Moscow.

It was his comrades at the School of Painting and Sculpture who were sharp-tongued and nicknamed him the Bear.

As his classmate Pyotr Krymov recalled, with whom Shishkin rented a room together in a mansion in Kharitonevsky Lane, “our Bear has already climbed all Sokolniki and painted all the glades.”

However, he went to sketches in Ostankino, and in Sviblovo, and even in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra - Shishkin worked as if tirelessly. Many wondered: in a day he turned out as many sketches as others could hardly do in a week.

In 1855, having brilliantly graduated from the School of Painting, Shishkin decided to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. And although, according to the then ranking table, graduates of the Moscow School actually had the same status as graduates of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Shishkin simply passionately wanted to learn to paint from the best European masters of painting.

Life in the noisy capital of the empire did not change Shishkin's unsociable character at all. As he wrote in letters to his parents, if it were not for the opportunity to study painting with the best craftsmen, he would have returned home long ago, to his native forests.

“Petersburg is tired,” he wrote to his parents in the winter of 1858. - Today we were at Admiralteyskaya Square, where, as you know, the color of the St. Petersburg Shrovetide. It’s all such rubbish, nonsense, vulgarity, and on foot and in carriages the most respectable public, the so-called higher one, flocks to this vulgar mess, to kill part of their boring and idle time and immediately stare at how the lower public is having fun. And we, the people who make up the average audience, right, do not want to watch ... "

And here is another letter written already in the spring: “This incessant thunder of carriages appeared on the cobblestone pavement, at least it doesn’t bother me in winter. Here comes the first day of the holiday, countless people appear on the streets of all Petersburg, cocked hats, helmets, cockades and similar rubbish to make visits. Strange thing, in St. Petersburg every minute you meet either a pot-bellied general, or a pole of an officer, or a crooked official - these personalities are simply countless, you might think that all of Petersburg is full only of them, these animals ... "

The only consolation he finds in the capital is the church. Paradoxically, it was in noisy St. Petersburg, where many people in those years lost not only their faith, but also their very human appearance, Shishkin just found his way to God.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin.

In letters to his parents, he wrote: “We have a church at the Academy in the building itself, and during the service we leave classes, go to church, but in the evening after the class to the vigil, there is no matins. And I’ll tell you with pleasure that it’s so pleasant, so good, as well as possible, like someone who did what, leaves everything, goes, comes back and again does the same thing as before. As the church is good, so the clergy fully respond to it, the priest is a respectable, kind old man, he often visits our classes, he speaks so simply, fascinatingly, so vividly ... "

Shishkin also saw God's will in his studies: he had to prove to the professors of the Academy the right of a Russian artist to paint Russian landscapes. It was not so easy to do this, because at that time the Frenchman Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain were considered luminaries and gods of the landscape genre, who painted either the majestic alpine landscapes or the sultry nature of Greece or Italy. Russian spaces were considered the realm of savagery, unworthy of being depicted on canvas.

Ilya Repin, who studied a little later at the Academy, wrote: “Nature is real, beautiful nature was recognized only in Italy, where there were eternally unattainable samples the highest art. The professors saw it all, studied it, knew it, and led their students to the same goal, to the same unfading ideals…”

I.I. Shishkin. Oak.

But it was not only about ideals.

Starting from the time of Catherine II, foreigners flooded the artistic circles of St. Petersburg: the French and Italians, Germans and Swedes, the Dutch and the British worked on portraits of royal dignitaries and members of the imperial family. Suffice it to recall the Englishman George Doe, the author of the portrait series of heroes Patriotic War 1812, who under Nicholas I was officially appointed the First Artist of the Imperial Court. And while Shishkin was studying at the Academy, the Germans Franz Kruger and Peter von Hess, Johann Schwabe and Rudolf Frentz shone at the court in St. Petersburg, who specialized in depicting high-society amusements - primarily balls and hunting. Moreover, judging by the pictures, the Russian nobles did not hunt at all in the northern forests, but somewhere in the Alpine valleys. And, naturally, foreigners, who considered Russia as a colony, tirelessly inspired the St. Petersburg elite with the idea of ​​the natural superiority of everything European over Russian.

However, it was impossible to break Shishkin's stubbornness.

“God showed me this way; the path on which I am now, he leads me along it; and how God will unexpectedly lead to my goal,” he wrote to his parents. “A firm hope in God consoles me in such cases, and involuntarily a shell of dark thoughts is thrown off me…”

Ignoring the criticism of teachers, he continued to paint pictures of Russian forests, honing his drawing technique to perfection.

And he achieved his goal: in 1858, Shishkin received the Great Silver Medal of the Academy of Arts for drawings with a pen and picturesque studies written on the island of Valaam. The following year, Shishkin for the Valaam landscape received gold medal the second dignity, which also gives the right to study abroad at the expense of the state.

I.I. Shishkin. View on the island of Valaam.

Abroad, Shishkin quickly yearned for his homeland.

The Berlin Academy of Arts seemed like a dirty barn. The exhibition in Dresden is the identity of bad taste.

“Out of innocent modesty, we reproach ourselves that we don’t know how to write or we write rudely, tastelessly and not like abroad,” he wrote in his diary. - But, really, as much as we saw here in Berlin - we have much better, of course, I take the general. I have never seen anything more callous and tasteless than painting here at the permanent exhibition - and here there are not only Dresden artists, but from Munich, Zurich, Leipzig and Düsseldorf, more or less all representatives of the great German nation. Of course, we look at them as obsequiously as we look at everything foreign ... So far, from everything that I have seen abroad, nothing has brought me to a stun, as I expected, but, on the contrary, I have become more confident in myself ... »

Neither seduced him mountain views Saxon Switzerland, where he studied with the famous animal painter Rudolf Koller (so, contrary to rumor, Shishkin could draw animals excellently), nor the landscapes of Bohemia with miniature mountains, nor the beauty of old Munich, nor Prague.

“Now I just realized that I didn’t get there,” Shishkin wrote. “Prague is nothing remarkable, and its surroundings are also poor.”

I.I. Shishkin. Village near Prague. Watercolor.

Only the ancient Teutoburg forest with centuries-old oaks, still remembering the time of the invasion of the Roman legions, briefly captivated his imagination.

The more he traveled around Europe, the more he wanted to return to Russia.

From longing, he even once got into a very unpleasant story. Once he was sitting in a Munich pub, having drunk about a liter of Moselle wine. And he didn’t share something with a company of tipsy Germans who began to let go of rude ridicule about Russia and Russians. Ivan Ivanovich, without waiting for any explanation or apology from the Germans, got into a fight and, as witnesses claimed, with bare hands knocked out seven Germans. As a result, the artist got into the police, and the case could take a very serious turn. But Shishkin was acquitted: the artist, after all, the judges considered, was a vulnerable soul. And this turned out to be almost his only positive impression of the European trip.

But at the same time, thanks to the experience gained in Europe, Shishkin was able to become in Russia what he became.

In 1841, an event took place in London that was not immediately appreciated by contemporaries: the American John Goff Rand received a patent for a tin tube for storing paint, wrapped at one end and twisted with a cap from the other. It was a prototype of the current tubes, in which today not only paint is packed, but also a lot of useful things: cream, toothpaste, food for astronauts.

What could be more common than a tube?

Perhaps it is difficult for us today to even imagine how this invention made life easier for artists. Now everyone can easily and quickly become a painter: go to the store, buy a primed canvas, brushes and a set of acrylic or oil paints- and please, draw as much as you like! In the old days, artists prepared their own paints, buying dry pigments in powder from merchants, and then patiently mixing the powder with oil. But in the time of Leonardo da Vinci, artists themselves prepared coloring pigments, which was an extremely time-consuming process. And, for example, the process of soaking crushed lead in acetic acid to make white paint took the lion's share of the painters' working time, which is why, by the way, the paintings of the old masters were so dark, the artists tried to save on whitewash.

But even mixing paints based on semi-finished pigments took a lot of time and effort. Many painters recruited students to prepare paints for work. Ready-made paints were stored in hermetically sealed clay pots and bowls. It is clear that with a set of pots and jugs for oil, it was impossible to go to the open air, that is, to paint landscapes from nature.

I.I. Shishkin. Forest.

And this was another reason why the Russian landscape could not be recognized in Russian art: painters simply redrawn landscapes from paintings by European masters, not being able to draw from life.

Of course, the reader may object: if an artist cannot paint from nature, then why couldn't they draw from memory? Or just make it all out of your head?

But drawing "from the head" was completely unacceptable for graduates of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

Ilya Repin has a curious episode in his memoirs, illustrating the importance of Shishkin's attitude to the truth of life.

“On my largest canvas, I began to paint rafts. Along the wide Volga, a whole string of rafts walked straight at the viewer, the artist wrote. - Ivan Shishkin, to whom I showed this picture, prompted me to destroy this picture.

- Well, what did you mean by that! And most importantly: after all, you didn’t write this from sketches from nature ?! Can you see it now.

No, I imagined...

- That's what it is. Imagined! After all, these logs in the water ... It should be clear: which logs - spruce, pine? And then what, some kind of "stoerosovye"! Ha ha! There is an impression, but it is not serious ... "

The word "not serious" sounded like a sentence, and Repin destroyed the painting.

Shishkin himself, who did not have the opportunity to paint sketches in the forest with paints from nature, made sketches with a pencil and pen during walks, achieving a filigree drawing technique. Actually, in Western Europe it was his forest sketches made in pen and ink that were always valued. Shishkin also brilliantly painted with watercolors.

Of course, Shishkin was far from the first artist who dreamed of painting large canvases with Russian landscapes. But how to move the workshop to the forest or to the river bank? The artists did not have an answer to this question. Some of them built temporary workshops (such as Surikov and Aivazovsky), but moving such workshops from place to place was too expensive and troublesome even for eminent painters.

We also tried to pack ready-made mixed paints in pork bladders that were tied in a knot. Then they pierced the bubble with a needle to squeeze out some paint onto the palette, and the resulting hole was plugged with a nail. But more often than not, the bubbles just burst along the way.

And suddenly there are strong and light tubes with liquid paints that you could carry with you - just squeeze a little onto the palette and draw. Moreover, the colors themselves have become brighter and juicier.

Next came the easel, that is, a portable box with paints and a canvas stand that you could carry with you.

Of course, not all artists could lift the first easels, but Shishkin's bearish strength came in handy here.

The return of Shishkin to Russia with new colors and new painting technologies caused a sensation.

Ivan Ivanovich did not just fit into fashion - no, he himself became a trendsetter in artistic fashion, not only in St. Petersburg, but also in Western Europe: his works become a discovery at the Paris World Exhibition, receive flattering reviews at an exhibition in Dusseldorf, which, however, no wonder, because the French and Germans are no less tired of the "classic" Italian landscapes than the Russians.

At the Academy of Arts, he receives the title of professor. Moreover, at the request Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna Shishkin was introduced to Stanislav 3rd degree.

Also, a special landscape class opens at the Academy, and Ivan Ivanovich has both a stable income and students. Moreover, the very first student - Fedor Vasiliev - in a short time achieves universal recognition.

There were changes in Shishkin's personal life: he married Evgenia Alexandrovna Vasilyeva - sister his student. Soon the newlyweds had a daughter, Lydia, followed by sons Vladimir and Konstantin.

Evgenia Shishkina, Shishkin's first wife.

“In character, Ivan Ivanovich was born a family man; away from his people, he was never calm, almost could not work, it constantly seemed to him that someone was certainly sick at home, something happened, wrote the first biographer of the artist Natalya Komarova. - In the external arrangement of domestic life, he had no rivals, creating a comfortable and beautiful environment from almost nothing; he was terribly tired of wandering around the furnished rooms, and he devoted himself wholeheartedly to his family and his household. For his children, this was the most tender loving father, especially when the children were small. Evgenia Alexandrovna was simple and good woman, and the years of her life with Ivan Ivanovich passed in quiet and peaceful work. The funds already allowed him to have modest comfort, although with an ever-increasing family, Ivan Ivanovich could not afford anything superfluous. He had many acquaintances, comrades often gathered to them and games were arranged between times, and Ivan Ivanovich was the most hospitable host and the soul of society.

He has especially warm relations with the founders of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, artists Ivan Kramskoy and Konstantin Savitsky. For the summer, the three of them rented a spacious house in the village of Ilzho on the shores of Lake Ilzhovsky not far from St. Petersburg. From early morning, Kramskoy locked himself in the studio, working on "Christ in the Desert", and Shishkin and Savitsky usually went to sketches, climbing into the very depths of the forest, into the thicket.

Shishkin approached the matter very responsibly: he searched for a place for a long time, then began to clear the bushes, chopped off the branches so that nothing would prevent him from seeing the landscape he liked, made a seat out of branches and moss, strengthened the easel and got to work.

Savitsky - an early orphaned nobleman from Bialystok - fell in love with Ivan Ivanovich. Sociable person, lover of long walks, practically knowing life He knew how to listen, he knew how to speak himself. There was a lot in common in them, and therefore both reached out to each other. Savitsky even became the godfather of the artist's youngest son, also Konstantin.

During such a summer suffering, Kramskoy wrote the most famous portrait Shishkina: not an artist, but a gold digger in the wilds of the Amazon - in a fashionable cowboy hat, English breeches and light leather boots with iron heels. In his hands is an alpenstock, a sketchbook, a box of paints, a folding chair, an umbrella from the sun's rays hang casually on his shoulder - in a word, all the equipment.

- Not just a Bear, but a real owner of the forest! Kramskoy exclaimed.

It was Shishkin's last happy summer.

Kramskoy. Portrait of I. I. Shishkin.

First came a telegram from Yelabuga: “This morning Father Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin died. I take it upon myself to inform you."

Then little Volodya Shishkin died. Yevgenia Alexandrovna turned black with grief and took to her bed.

“Shishkin has been biting his nails for three months and nothing more,” wrote Kramskoy in November 1873. - His wife is ill in the old way ... "

Then the blows of fate rained down one after another. A telegram came from Yalta about the death of Fyodor Vasiliev, and Evgenia Alexandrovna died next.

In a letter to a friend Savitsky, Kramskoy wrote: “E.A. Shishkin ordered to live long. She died last Wednesday, on the night of Thursday from 5 to 6 March. On Saturday we saw her off. Soon. More than I thought. But that's to be expected."

To top it off, he died younger son Konstantin.

Ivan Ivanovich became not himself. I didn’t hear what my relatives were saying, I didn’t find a place for myself either at home or in the workshop, even endless wanderings in the forest could not ease the pain of loss. Every day he went to visit his native graves, and then, after returning home after dark, he drank cheap wine to the point of complete unconsciousness.

Friends were afraid to come to him - they knew that Shishkin, being out of his mind, could well rush at uninvited guests with his fists. The only one who could console him was Savitsky, but he drank alone in Paris, mourning the death of his wife Ekaterina Ivanovna, who either committed suicide or died in an accident, poisoned by carbon monoxide.

Savitsky himself was close to suicide. Perhaps only the misfortune that happened to his friend in St. Petersburg could stop him from an irreparable act.

Only a few years later Shishkin found the pitchfork to return to painting.

He painted the painting "Rye" - especially for the VI Traveling Exhibition. A huge field, which he sketched somewhere near Yelabuga, became for him the embodiment of his father’s words, read in one of the old letters: “Death lies with a man, then judgment, that if a man sows in life, he will reap.”

In the background are mighty pine trees and - as an eternal reminder of death, which is always nearby - a huge withered tree.

At the traveling exhibition of 1878, "Rye" admittedly took first place.

I.I. Shishkin. Rye.

In the same year, he met the young artist Olga Lagoda. The daughter of a real state councilor and courtier, she was one of the first thirty women admitted to study by volunteers at the Imperial Academy of Arts. Olga fell into Shishkin's class, and the eternally gloomy and shaggy Ivan Ivanovich, who, moreover, grew a shaggy Old Testament beard, suddenly discovered with surprise that at the sight of this short girl with bottomless blue eyes and bangs of chestnut hair, his heart begins to beat a little stronger than usual, and hands suddenly begin to sweat, like a snotty high school student.

Ivan Ivanovich proposed, and in 1880 he and Olga got married. Soon the daughter Xenia was born. Happy Shishkin ran around the house and sang, sweeping away everything in his path.

And a month and a half after giving birth, Olga Antonovna died of inflammation of the peritoneum.

No, Shishkin did not drink this time. He threw himself into work, trying to provide everything necessary for his two daughters, who were left without mothers.

Not giving himself the opportunity to become limp, finishing one picture, he stretched the canvas on a stretcher for the next. He began to engage in etching, mastered the technique of engraving, illustrated books.

- Work! - said Ivan Ivanovich. – Work every day, going to this job as if it were a service. There is nothing to wait for the notorious "inspiration" ... Inspiration is the work itself!

In the summer of 1888, they again rested “like a family” with Konstantin Savitsky. Ivan Ivanovich - with two daughters, Konstantin Apollonovich - with his new wife Elena and little son George.

And so Savitsky sketched a comic drawing for Ksenia Shishkina: a mother bear watches her three cubs play. Moreover, two kids carelessly chase each other, and one - the so-called one-year-old foster bear - looks somewhere in the thicket of the forest, as if waiting for someone ...

Shishkin, who saw his friend's drawing, could not take his eyes off the cubs for a long time.

What was he thinking? Perhaps the artist remembered that the pagan Votyaks, who still lived in the wilds of the forest near Yelabuga, believed that bears were the closest relatives of people, that it was into bears that the early dead sinless souls of children pass.

And if he himself was called the Bear, then this is his entire bear family: the bear is the wife of Evgeny Alexandrovna, and the cubs are Volodya and Kostya, and next to them stands the bear Olga Antonovna and is waiting for him to come himself - the Bear and the king of the forest ...

“These bears need to be given a good background,” he finally suggested to Savitsky. - And I know what needs to be written here ... Let's work for a couple: I will write the forest, and you - the bears, they turned out to be very alive ...

And then Ivan Ivanovich made a pencil sketch future picture, remembering how on the island of Gorodomlya, on Lake Seliger, he saw mighty pine trees that a hurricane had uprooted and broken in half - like matches. Those who have seen such a catastrophe themselves will easily understand: the very sight of forest giants torn to pieces causes people to be dumbfounded and afraid, and at the place where the trees fell in the fabric of the forest, a strange empty space- such a defiant emptiness that nature itself does not tolerate, but still has to endure; the same unhealed emptiness after the death of loved ones formed in the heart of Ivan Ivanovich.

Mentally remove the bears from the picture, and you will see the scope of the catastrophe that happened in the forest, which happened quite recently, judging by the yellowed pine needles and the fresh color of the wood at the place of breaking. But there were no other reminders of the storm. Now the soft golden light of God’s grace is pouring from heaven into the forest, in which His cub angels are bathing ...

The painting "The Bear Family in the Forest" was first presented to the public at the XVII Traveling Exhibition in April 1889, and on the eve of the exhibition, the painting was bought by Pavel Tretyakov for 4 thousand rubles. Of this amount, Ivan Ivanovich gave his co-author a fourth part - a thousand rubles, which caused resentment in his old friend: he counted on a fairer assessment of his contribution to the picture.

I.I. Shishkin. Morning in a pine forest. Etude.

Savitsky wrote to his relatives: “I don’t remember if we wrote to you that I was not completely absent from the exhibition. I once started a picture with bears in the forest, I took a fancy to it. I.I. Sh-n took over the execution of the landscape. The painting danced, and Tretyakov found a buyer. Thus we killed the bear and divided the skin! But this carve-up happened with some curious hesitations. So curious and unexpected that I even refused any participation in this picture, it is exhibited under the name of Sh-na and is listed as such in the catalog.

It turns out that questions of such a delicate nature cannot be concealed in a bag, courts and gossip began, and I had to sign the picture with Sh., and then divide the trophies of purchase and sale. The painting was sold for 4 tons, and I am a participant in the 4th share! I carry a lot of bad things in my heart on this issue, and out of joy and pleasure, something opposite happened.

I am writing to you about this because I am used to keeping my heart open to you, but you, Dear friends, you understand that this whole matter is of an extremely delicate nature, and therefore it is necessary that all this be completely secret for everyone with whom I would not want to talk.

However, later Savitsky found the strength to reconcile with Shishkin, although they no longer worked together and no longer rested with their families: soon Konstantin Apollonovich and his wife and children moved to live in Penza, where he was offered the position of director of the newly opened Art School.

When in May 1889 XVII Traveling exhibition moved to the halls of the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Tretyakov saw that “The Bear Family in the Forest” was already hanging with two signatures.

Pavel Mikhailovich was, to put it mildly, surprised: he bought a painting from Shishkin. But the very fact of the presence next to the great Shishkin of the name of the “mediocre” Savitsky automatically reduced market value pictures, and reduced decently. Judge for yourself: Tretyakov bought a painting in which the world-famous misanthrope Shishkin, who almost never painted people and animals, suddenly became an animal painter and depicted four animals. And not just any cows, seals or dogs, but ferocious “owners of the forest”, which - any hunter will confirm this to you - is very difficult to portray from nature, because the she-bear will tear to shreds anyone who dares to approach her cubs. But all of Russia knows that Shishkin paints only from life, and, therefore, the painter saw the bear family in the forest as clearly as he painted on canvas. And now it turns out that it was not Shishkin himself who painted the she-bear with cubs, but “something there” Savitsky, who, as Tretyakov himself believed, did not know how to work with color at all - all his canvases turned out to be deliberately bright, then somehow earthy -gray. But both of them were completely flat, like popular prints, while Shishkin's paintings had volume and depth.

Probably, Shishkin himself was of the same opinion, inviting a friend to participate only because of his idea.

That is why Tretyakov ordered Savitsky's signature to be erased with turpentine so as not to belittle Shishkin. And in general, he renamed the painting itself - they say, it’s not about the bears at all, but about that magical golden light that seems to flood the whole picture.

But the folk painting "Three Bears" had two more co-authors, whose names remained in history, although they do not appear in any exhibition and art catalog.

One of them is Julius Geis, one of the founders and leaders of the Einem Partnership (later the Krasny Oktyabr confectionery factory). At the Einem factory, among all other candies and chocolates, thematic sets of sweets were also produced - for example, “Treasures of the earth and sea”, “Vehicles”, “Types of peoples the globe". Or, for example, a set of cookies "Moscow of the Future": in each box one could find a postcard with futuristic drawings about Moscow in the 23rd century. Julius Geis also decided to release a series of "Russian Artists and Their Paintings" and agreed with Tretyakov, having received permission to place reproductions of paintings from his gallery on the wrappers. One of the most delicious sweets, made from a thick layer of almond praline sandwiched between two waffle plates and covered with a thick layer of glazed chocolate, and received a wrapper with a painting by Shishkin.

Candy wrapper.

Soon the release of this series was stopped, but the candy with bears, called "Bear-toed Bear", began to be produced as a separate product.

In 1913, the artist Manuil Andreev redrawn the picture: to the plot of Shishkin and Savitsky, he added a frame of fir branches and Bethlehem stars, because in those years the “Bear” for some reason was considered the most expensive and desired gift for Christmas holidays.

Surprisingly, this wrapper survived all the wars and revolutions of the tragic twentieth century. Moreover, in Soviet times, "Mishka" became the most expensive delicacy: in the 1920s, a kilogram of sweets was sold for four rubles. The candy even had a slogan, which was composed by Vladimir Mayakovsky himself: “If you want to eat “Mishka”, get yourself a passbook!”.

Very soon, the candy received a new name in popular life - "Three Bears". At the same time, Ivan Shishkin’s painting began to be called that, reproductions of which, cut out from the Ogonyok magazine, soon appeared in every Soviet house - either as a manifesto of a comfortable bourgeois life that despised Soviet reality, or as a reminder that sooner or later, but any the storm will pass.

Editor's Choice

Ivan Shishkin is not only "Morning in a Pine Forest", but this picture has its own interesting story. To start with - who actually drew these bears?

In the Tretyakov Gallery they are called "notebooks". Because they are small and shabby, with signatures - a student of Shishkin or simply "Sha". They don’t flip through once again - even such plain-looking ones have no price. Out of seven, one is empty - half a century ago former owner sold it to private hands. Tearing off a leaf. This turned out to be more expensive. Inside are sketches of future masterpieces and ... refutation of idle gossip - try to prove now that Shishkin wrote only the forest ...

Nina Markova, senior researcher at the Tretyakov Gallery: "The talk that Shishkin could not draw animals, human figures is a myth! Let's start with the fact that Shishkin studied with an animal painter, so cows, lambs, all this came out great for him."

This animal theme during the life of the artist became a burning issue for art lovers. Feel the difference, they said - a pine forest and two bears. Barely distinguishable. This is Shishkin's hand. And here is another pine forest and two signatures at the bottom. One is almost worn out.

This is the only case of so-called co-authorship, art critics say - morning in a pine forest. These funny bears inside the picture were not painted by Shishkin, but by his friend and colleague, the artist Savitsky. Yes, it's so wonderful that I decided to sign the work together with Ivan Shishkin. However, the Tretyakov collector ordered Savitsky's signature to be removed - the main characters of the painting by the artist Shishkin are by no means bears, he considered.

They really often worked together. And only the bearish quartet is literally a product of discord in the long-term friendship of artists. Relatives of Konstantin Savitsky alternative version the disappearance of the signature - allegedly Shishkin received the entire fee for Savitsky's plan.

Evelina Polishchuk, senior researcher at the Tretyakov Gallery, relative of Konstantin Savitsky: "There was such an insult and he erased his signature and said" I don't need anything, "although he had 7 children."

"If I were not an artist, I would become a botanist," the artist repeated many times, whom the students already called so. He urged them to consider the subject through magnifying glass or take a picture to remember - he did it himself, here are his devices. And only then, with an accuracy of a pine needle, transferred to paper.

Galina Churak, head of the department of the Tretyakov Gallery: " Home work was in summer and spring on location, and he brought hundreds of sketches to St. Petersburg, where he worked on large canvases in autumn and winter.

He scolded his friend - Repin for his rafts in the paintings, he said, he didn’t understand what kind of logs they were made of. Whether business - Shishkin wood - "oaks" or "pine". But according to Lermontov's motives - in the wild north. Each picture has its own face - rye - this is Russia, wide, grain-growing. Pine forest - our wild denseness. He has no repetition. These landscapes are like different people. For all his life, almost eight hundred portraits of nature.

This picture is known to everyone, young and old, because the very work of the great landscape painter Ivan Shishkin is the most notable pictorial masterpiece in creative heritage artist.

We all know that this artist was very fond of the forest and its nature, admired every bush and blade of grass, moldy tree trunks adorned with foliage and needles sagging from the weight. Shishkin reflected all this love on an ordinary linen canvas, so that later the whole world would see the unsurpassed and still mastery of the great Russian master.

At the first acquaintance in the Tretyakov Gallery with the painting Morning in a Pine Forest, one feels the indelible impression of the presence of the viewer, the human mind completely merges into the atmosphere of the forest with marvelous and mighty giant pines, from which it reeks of coniferous aroma. I want to breathe deeper this air, its freshness mixed with the morning forest fog covering the surroundings of the forest.

The visible tops of centuries-old pines, sagging from the weight of the branches, are affectionately lit by the morning rays of the sun. As we understand, all this beauty was preceded by a terrible hurricane, mighty wind which, uprooted and knocked down a pine tree, breaking it in two. All this contributed to what we see. Bear cubs frolic on the wreckage of a tree, and their naughty game guarded by mother bear. This plot can be said to very clearly enliven the picture adding atmosphere to the whole composition. Everyday life forest nature.

Despite the fact that Shishkin rarely wrote animals in his works, he still prefers the beauties of earthly vegetation. Of course, he painted sheep and cows in some of his works, but apparently it was a little annoying for him. In this story, the bears were written by his colleague Savitsky K.A., who from time to time was engaged in creativity together with Shishkin. Maybe he offered to work together.

At the end of the work, Savitsky also signed in the picture, so there were two signatures. Everything would be fine, everyone liked the picture very much, including well-known philanthropist True, Tretyakov, who decided to buy the painting for his collection, demanded that Savitsky's signature be removed, citing the fact that the bulk of the work was done by Shishkin, who was more familiar to him, who had to fulfill the collector's demand. As a result, a quarrel arose in this co-authorship, because the entire fee was paid to the main performer of the picture. Of course accurate information on this occasion, practically not, historians shrug. One can, of course, only guess how this fee was divided and what unpleasant sensations were in the circle of fellow artists.

The plot with the painting Morning in a Pine Forest was widely known among contemporaries, there was a lot of talk and reasoning about the state of nature depicted by the artist. The fog is shown very colorfully, decorating the airiness of the morning forest with a soft blue haze. As we remember, the artist has already painted the painting "Fog in a Pine Forest" and this airy technique turned out to be very useful in this work.

Today, the picture is very common, as it was written above, it is known even to children who love sweets and souvenirs, often it is even called the Three Bears, perhaps because three cubs catch the eye and the bear is, as it were, in the shade and not quite noticeable, in the second case in The USSR so called sweets, where this reproduction was printed on candy wrappers.

Also today modern masters they draw copies, decorating various offices and representative secular halls with the beauties of our Russian nature, and of course our apartments. In the original, this masterpiece can be seen by visiting the not often visited by many Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.