What is the name of the famous painting by Shishkin. Ivan Shishkin

The name of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is familiar to everyone since childhood: it is his picture that is depicted on the wrapper of the Bears in the Forest candy. In addition to this outstanding work, the painter has dozens of others that hang on the walls. best museums peace.

Ivan Ivanovich with titles located in the Tretyakov Gallery

« Pinery. Mast forest in the Vyatka province”, “Deciduous forest”, “Spruce forest”, “Oaks. Evening”, “Pine trees illuminated by the sun”, “Oak trees”, “In the forest of Countess Mordvinova. Peterhof", "Pond in the Old Park", "Rye", "Morning in pine forest"," Noon. In the outskirts of Moscow”, “A walk in the forest” is only a small but worthy collection of works by the great Russian realist artist. Such is Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. Paintings with titles - in the amount of twelve canvases - are located in the premises of the Tretyakov Gallery, which tourists from all over the world and Muscovites tend to visit - true connoisseurs art.

"Morning in a pine forest"

In the 80s and 90s 19th century were written by Shishkin himself. With the names, the artist was simple, but at the same time original: he did not choose epithets and metaphors, because of which the meaning of the canvas would be twofold. "Morning in a pine forest" - Russian realistic landscape. Looking at the canvas, it is difficult to understand that this is not a photograph, but a painting - Shishkin so skillfully conveyed the play of light and shadows, as well as the activities of his main characters - a she-bear with three cubs. In the dark wilderness of the forest, a random ray of the sun that breaks through the heavy crowns of trees is an indicator of the time of day, in this case, morning.

The work on the painting took place in 1889. Shishkin was assisted by the artist Savitsky, who initially insisted on his authorship of the figures of bears. However, the collector Tretyakov erased his signature and ordered that the painting become a full-fledged brainchild of Ivan Shishkin. Art historians have proved that "Morning in a Pine Forest" was written from nature. The painter chose for a long time an animal that could become a symbol of the Russian forest: a wild boar, an elk or a bear. However, Shishkin liked the first two least of all. In search of ideal bears and a suitable forest, he traveled all over and, having met a brown family, he completed it from memory. From the moment of the idea to the completion of work on the canvas, 4 years have passed, and today “Morning in a Pine Forest” flaunts in Tretyakov Gallery, like other paintings by the artist Shishkin (there are no problems with the names, all works are signed).

"In the Wild North"

Looking at this most famous picture, one involuntarily recalls the stanzas from Lermontov’s poem, which are a continuation of this Shishkin’s landscape: “... A pine tree stands alone on a bare peak, And slumbers, swaying, and with loose snow She is dressed like a riza.” The work was prepared for the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Mikhail Yurievich and became a worthy illustration of a collection of his poems. Some other paintings by Ivan Shishkin (with titles) are also included in the books fiction, which proves the invaluable contribution of the painter to the development of Russian Art XIX century.

The artist Byalynitsky-Birulya highly appreciated the painting “In the Wild North” and commented that Lermontov would be happy to see such a worthy illustration for his poem. Like a poet with words, so with a brush with paint, the painter conveys the mood, in this case - thoughtful and a little sad. The motive of loneliness is obvious: at the edge of the cliff stands a pine tree, distant from the rest of the forest, whose branches are heavy from the piled snow. Ahead is a blue abyss, above is a clear but sad sky of the same color. Pure white snow, which occupies one third of the picture, shines in the rays of the sun, but it is not destined to melt soon, because the weather conditions in the wild north are very severe.

"Rye"

Known to many connoisseurs of painting since childhood, it was painted in 1878. The painting “Rye” conveys the breadth of the Russian land and the soul of a Russian person: two-thirds of the canvas is occupied by a blue sky with low snow-white clouds, and the rest of the space is devoted to a rye field, in some places which sprout tall pines. This tree has forever become a symbol of the Russian land. Looking at the painting "Rye", one involuntarily recalls lines from the poetry of O. Mandelstam: "And the pine reaches the star ...". If the poet had lived while the picture was being painted, Shishkin would certainly have borrowed this stanza. Pictures with the names of this painter convey the simplicity, kindness and depth of his soul, but the concept of the work becomes clear after a long and close examination. In the title "Rye", as it seems at first glance, there is nothing majestic and intriguing, but if you look at the majestic pine trees that stand like heroes, you get the impression that these trees are a kind of defenders of rye fields and the whole Russian land.

"Italian Boy"

Ivan Shishkin was the most enlightened artist of Russian realism, therefore he considered it his duty to depict on the canvas not only landscapes, but also portraits, which are not so numerous in the painter's collection. However, the author's talent does not become less because of this - it is worth taking a look at the work "Italian Boy". The year the portrait was painted is unknown, but probably Ivan Ivanovich created it in late period of your creativity. Similar features can be traced with a self-portrait, on which Shishkin himself worked in 1856. Paintings (with titles), most of which is represented by landscapes, are located in the Tretyakov Gallery and other authoritative public institutions but fate' Italian boy' remains unknown.

"Cutting down the forest"

Fallen trees are a frequent occurrence depicted by Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich. Paintings with the names "Pine Forest", "Logs. The village of Konstantinovka near Krasnoe Selo" and "Cutting the Forest" demonstrate this in the best possible way. Last work the author is the most famous. Shishkin worked on "The Cutting of the Forest" in 1867 during a trip to Valaam. The beauty of the pine forest, majestic and defenseless, was often depicted by Ivan Ivanovich on canvases, and the moment when he demonstrates the consequences of man's invasion of virgin lands is especially tragic. What awaits the rest of the trees that stand in the background is known to Shishkin himself, but the stumps cut off at the root evoke melancholy and testify to the superiority of man over nature.

Name: Ivan Shishkin

Age: 66 years old

Activity: landscape painter

Family status: widower

Ivan Shishkin: biography

Ivan Shishkin "lives" in almost every Russian house or apartment. Especially in Soviet time the hosts liked to decorate the walls with reproductions of the artist's paintings torn out of magazines. Moreover, with the work of the painter, the Russians get acquainted with early childhood- the bears in the pine forest decorated the wrapper of chocolates. Even during his lifetime, the talented master was called the “forest hero” and “king of the forest” as a sign of respect for the ability to sing the beauties of nature.

Childhood and youth

The future painter was born in the family of merchant Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin on January 25, 1832. The artist spent his childhood in Yelabuga (in tsarist times it was part of the Vyatka province, today it is the Republic of Tatarstan). Father was loved and respected in a small provincial town, Ivan Vasilyevich even occupied the chair of the head for several years locality. At the initiative of the merchant and with his own money, Yelabuga acquired a wooden water supply system, which is still partially working. Shishkin gave his contemporaries the first book about history native land.

Being a versatile and pragmatic person, Ivan Vasilyevich tried to interest his son Vanya natural sciences, mechanics, archeology, and when the boy grew up, he sent him to the First Kazan Gymnasium in the hope that the offspring would receive an excellent education. However young Ivan Shishkin was more attracted to art since childhood. Therefore, the educational institution quickly got bored, and he left him, saying that he did not want to turn into an official.

The son's return home upset his parents, especially since the offspring, as soon as he left the walls of the gymnasium, began to draw selflessly. Mom Daria Alexandrovna was indignant at Ivan's inability to study, and was also annoyed by the fact that the teenager was completely unsuited to household chores, sitting and doing useless “dirty paper”. The father supported his wife, although he secretly rejoiced at the craving for beauty that had awakened in his son. In order not to anger his parents, the artist practiced drawing at night - this is how his first steps in painting were designated.

Painting

For the time being, Ivan "dabbled" with a brush. But one day artists descended on Yelabuga, who were discharged from the capital to paint the church iconostasis, and for the first time Shishkin seriously thought about creative profession. Having learned from Muscovites about the existence of a school of painting and sculpture, the young man set on fire with a dream to become a student of this wonderful educational institution.

The father, with difficulty, but nevertheless agreed to let his son go to distant lands - provided that the offspring did not quit his studies there, but preferably turn into a second one. The biography of the great Shishkin showed that he kept his word to the parent flawlessly.

In 1852, the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture accepted Ivan Shishkin into its ranks, who fell under the tutelage of the portrait painter Apollon Mokritsky. And the novice painter was attracted by landscapes, in the drawing of which he selflessly practiced. Soon about the bright talent of the new star in fine arts the whole school learned: teachers and fellow students noted the unique gift of drawing an ordinary field or river very realistically.

The diploma of the school was not enough for Shishkin, and in 1856 the young man entered the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, in which he also won the hearts of teachers. Ivan Ivanovich studied diligently and surprised with outstanding abilities in painting.

In the first year, the artist went to summer practice to the island of Valaam, for the views of which he later received a big prize from the academy gold medal. During his studies, the painter's piggy bank was replenished with two small silver and small gold medals for paintings with St. Petersburg landscapes.

After graduating from the academy, Ivan Ivanovich got the opportunity to improve his skills abroad. The academy assigned a special pension to the talented graduate, and Shishkin, not burdened with the worries of earning a living, went to Munich, then to Zurich, Geneva and Dusseldorf.

Here the artist tried his hand at engraving with “aqua regia”, he wrote a lot with a pen, from under which the fateful painting “View in the vicinity of Düsseldorf” came out. Light, airy work went home - for her Shishkin received the title of academician.

For six years he got acquainted with the nature of a foreign country, but homesickness took over, Ivan Shishkin returned to his homeland. In the early years, the artist tirelessly traveled across the expanses of Russia in search of interesting places, unusual nature. When he appeared in St. Petersburg, he arranged exhibitions, participated in the affairs of the artel of artists. The painter made friends with Konstantin Savitsky, Arkhip Kuinzhdi and.

In the 70s, classes increased. Ivan Ivanovich founded, together with colleagues, the Association of Travelers art exhibitions, in parallel joining the association of aquafortists. A new title was waiting for the man - for the painting "Wilderness" the Academy elevated him to a number of professors.

In the second half of the 1870s, Ivan Shishkin almost lost his place, which he managed to take in artistic circles. Experiencing a personal tragedy (the death of his wife), the man got drunk and lost friends and relatives. With difficulty, he pulled himself together, plunging headlong into work. At that time, the masterpieces "Rye", "First Snow", "Pine Forest" came out from the master's pen. Ivan Ivanovich described his own state as follows: “What interests me most now? Life and its manifestations, now, as always.

Shortly before his death, Ivan Shishkin was invited to teach at the Higher art school at the Academy of Arts. The end of the 19th century was marked by the decline of the old school of artists, young people preferred to stick to other aesthetic principles, however

Assessing the artist's talent, Shishkin's biographers and admirers compare him with a biologist - in an effort to portray the unromanticized beauty of nature, Ivan Ivanovich carefully studied plants. Before starting work, he felt moss, small leaves, grass.

Gradually, his special style was formed, in which experiments were visible with combinations of different brushes, strokes, attempts to convey elusive colors and shades. Contemporaries called Ivan Shishkin a poet of nature, able to see the character of every corner.

The geography of the painter's work is wide: Ivan Ivanovich was inspired by the landscapes of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, the forest on Elk Island, the expanses of Sokolniki and Sestroretsk. The artist painted in Belovezhskaya Pushcha and, of course, in his native Yelabuga, where he came to visit.

Curiously, Shishkin did not always work alone. For example, the animal painter and comrade Konstantin Savitsky helped to paint the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” - from under the pen of this artist, bear cubs came to life on the canvas. The picture has two author's signatures.

Personal life

The personal life of a brilliant painter was tragic. Ivan Shishkin first went down the aisle late - only at the age of 36. In 1868, out of great love, he married the sister of the artist Fyodor Vasilyev, Evgenia. In this marriage, Ivan Ivanovich was very happy, could not bear long separations and was always in a hurry to return earlier from business trips in Russia.

Evgenia Alexandrovna gave birth to two sons and a daughter, and Shishkin reveled in fatherhood. Also at this time, he was known as a hospitable host, who gladly received guests in the house. But in 1874, the wife died, and soon after her left and little son.

With difficulty recovering from grief, Shishkin married his own student, artist Olga Ladoga. A year after the wedding, the woman died, leaving Ivan Ivanovich with her daughter in her arms.

Biographers note one feature of the character of Ivan Shishkin. During the years of study at the school, he bore the nickname Monk - so nicknamed for his gloominess and isolation. However, those who managed to become his friend were then surprised how talkative and joking a man was in a circle of relatives.

Death

Ivan Ivanovich left this world, as befits the masters, to work on another masterpiece. On a sunny spring day in 1898, the artist sat down at the easel in the morning. In addition to him, an assistant worked in the workshop, who told the details of the death of the teacher.

Shishkin made a kind of yawn, then his head just dropped to his chest. The doctor made a diagnosis - heart failure. The painting “Forest Kingdom” remained unfinished, and the last completed work of the painter is “ ship grove”, today delighting visitors to the Russian Museum.

Ivan Shishkin was first buried at the Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery (St. Petersburg), and in the middle of the 20th century the ashes of the artist were transferred to the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Paintings

• 1870 - "The gatehouse in the forest"
• 1871 - "Birch Forest"
• 1878 - "Birch Grove"
• 1878 - "Rye"
• 1882 - "At the edge of a pine forest"
• 1882 - "The edge of the forest"
• 1882 - "Evening"
• 1883 - "A stream in a birch forest"
• 1884 - "Forest distances"
• 1884 - "Pine in the Sand"
• 1884 - "Polesie"
• 1885 - "Foggy Morning"
• 1887 - "Oak Grove"
• 1889 - "Morning in a pine forest"
• 1891 - "Rain in the Oak Forest"
• 1891 - "In the wild north ..."
• 1891 - "After the Storm at Mary Howie"
• 1895 - "Forest"
• 1898 - "Ship Grove"

January 13 (25), 1832, 180 years ago, the future outstanding Russian landscape painter, painter, draftsman and engraver-aquaphorist was born Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin.

Shishkin was born in small town Yelabuga, on the banks of the Kama River. The dense coniferous forests surrounding this city and the harsh nature of the Urals conquered the young Shishkin.

Of all types of painting, Shishkin preferred the landscape. "... Nature is always new... and is always ready to give an inexhaustible supply of its gifts, which we call life... What can be better than nature..." he writes in his diary.

Close contact with nature, its careful study aroused in the young researcher of nature the desire to capture it as authentically as possible. “Only the unconditional imitation of nature,” he writes in a student album, “can fully satisfy the requirements of a landscape painter, and the most important thing for a landscape painter is a diligent study of nature, as a result of this, a picture from nature should be without imagination.”

Just three months after entering the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Shishkin attracted the attention of professors with his natural landscape drawings. He anxiously awaited the first exam at the Academy, and his joy was great at being awarded a small silver medal for the painting "View in the vicinity of St. Petersburg" submitted for the competition. According to him, he wanted to express in the picture "fidelity, similarity, portraiture of the depicted nature and convey the life of a hot-breathing nature."

Painted in 1865, the painting "View in the environs of Düsseldorf" brought the artist the title of academician.

By this time, he was already being talked about as a talented and virtuoso draftsman. His pen drawings, executed with the smallest strokes, with filigree finishing of details, surprised and amazed the audience both in Russia and abroad. Two such drawings were acquired by the Düsseldorf Museum.

Lively, sociable, charming, active Shishkin was surrounded by the attention of his comrades. I. E. Repin, who visited the famous "Thursdays" of the St. Petersburg Artel of Artists, later spoke about him: "The loudest voice of the hero I. I. Shishkin was heard: like a mighty green forest, he amazed everyone with his health, good appetite and truthful Russian speech During these evenings, he drew a lot of his excellent drawings with a pen. rough treatment the author comes out more and more elegant and brilliant.

Already at the first exhibition of the Wanderers appeared famous picture Shishkin "Pine forest. Mast forest in the Vyatka province". Before the viewer appears the image of the majestic, mighty Russian forest. Looking at the picture, one gets the impression of deep peace, which is not disturbed by either bears near a tree with a beehive, or a bird flying high in the sky. Pay attention to how beautifully the trunks of old pines are written: each has "its own character" and "its own face", but in general - the impression of a single world of nature, full of inexhaustible vitality. A leisurely detailed story, an abundance of details along with the identification of a typical, characteristic, the integrity of the captured image, simplicity and accessibility artistic language- are distinctive features this picture, as well as subsequent works of the artist, which invariably attracted the attention of viewers at exhibitions of the Association of the Wanderers.

IN the best pictures Shishkin I.I., created by the end of the 70s and in the 80s, a monumental-epic beginning is felt. The paintings convey the solemn beauty and power of the endless Russian forests. The life-affirming works of Shishkin are consonant with the worldview of the people, who connect the idea of ​​happiness, the contentment of human life with the power and richness of nature. On one of the sketches of the artist you can see the following inscription: "... Expanse, space, land. Rye... Grace. Russian wealth". A worthy completion of the integral and original work of Shishkin was the painting of 1898 "Ship Grove".

In Shishkin's painting "Polesye", contemporaries pointed out that the artist failed to achieve in coloring the perfection that distinguished the artist's drawings. N. I. Murashko noted that he would like to see more light in the painting "Polesie" "with its golden play, with its thousand reddish, then airy bluish transitions."

However, the fact that the color began to play significantly big role in his works of the 80s. In this regard, the highest appreciation of the picturesque qualities of Shishkin's famous sketch "Pine Trees Illuminated by the Sun" is important.

Working as a professor, Shishkin demanded painstaking preliminary work on location from his students. In winter, when I had to work indoors, I forced novice artists to make redrawings from photographs. Shishkin found that such work contributes to the comprehension of the forms of nature, helps to improve the drawing. He believed that only a long, intense study of nature could eventually open the way for a landscape painter to create independently. In addition, Shishkin noted that the mediocre will slavishly copy it, while "a person with a flair will take what he needs." However, he did not take into account that copying from photographs of individual details taken outside their natural environment does not bring closer, but moves away from the deep knowledge of it, which he sought from his students.

By 1883, the artist is at the dawn of his creative powers. It was at this time that Shishkin created the capital canvas "Among the Flat Valley ...", which can be considered classical in its completeness. artistic image, completeness, monumentality of sound. Contemporaries invaded the merits of the picture, noticing the essential feature of this work: it reveals those features of natural life that are dear and close to any Russian person, meet his aesthetic ideal and are captured in a folk song.

Suddenly, death crept up on the artist. He died at the easel on March 8 (20), 1898, while working on the painting "Forest Kingdom".

A great painter, brilliant draftsman and etcher, he left a huge artistic legacy.

Based on the book "Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin", compiled by I. N. Shuvalova

Paintings by Shishkin I.I.

Sea shore	Sea shore. Mary Howie	Pond shore	River bank	birch forest

Big Nevka	Logs. Village Konstantinovka near Red village	bumps	Beech forest in Switzerland	Beech forest in Switzerland

goby	In the spruce forest	In Crimea	In forest thickets	In the forest

In the woods of the Countess Mordvinova	In the deciduous forest	Around Düsseldorf	In the park	in the grove

Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich is the founder of the Russian epic landscape, which gives a broad, generalized idea of ​​the majestic and free Russian nature. In Shishkin's paintings, the strict truthfulness of the image, the calm breadth and majesty of the images, their natural, unobtrusive simplicity captivate. The poetry of Shishkin's landscapes is similar to a smooth melody folk song, with the course of a wide, full-flowing river.

Shishkin was born in 1832 in Yelabuga, among the untouched and majestic forests of the Kama region, which played a huge role in the formation of Shishkin as a landscape painter. From his youth, he was possessed by a passion for painting, and in 1852 he left his native places and went to Moscow, to the School of Painting and Sculpture. He directed all his artistic thoughts to the image of nature, for this he constantly traveled to Sokolniki Park to study sketches, studied nature. Shishkin's biographer wrote that before him no one painted nature so beautifully: "... just a field, a forest, a river - and they come out of him as beautiful as the Swiss views." In 1860, Shishkin brilliantly graduated from the Academy of Arts with a Big Gold Medal.

Throughout the entire period of his work, the artist followed one of his rules, and did not change him all his life: “Only imitation of nature can satisfy a landscape painter, and the most important thing for a landscape painter is a diligent study of nature ... Nature must be sought in all its simplicity ... "

Thus, all his life he followed the task of reproducing the existing as truthfully and accurately as possible and not embellishing it, not imposing his individual perception.

Shishkin's work can be called happy, he never knew painful doubts and contradictions. All of it creative life was dedicated to improving the method he followed in his painting.

Shishkin's pictures of nature were so truthful and accurate that he was often called a "photographer of Russian nature" - some with delight, others, innovators, with slight contempt, but in fact they still cause excitement and admiration in the audience. No one passes by his canvases indifferent.

The winter forest in this picture is shackled by frost, it seems to be numb. In the foreground are several hundred-year-old giant pines. Their powerful trunks darken against the background of bright white snow. Shishkin conveys the amazing beauty of the winter landscape, calm and majestic. To the right, an impenetrable thicket of the forest darkens. Everything around is immersed in winter sleep. Only a rare ray of cold sun penetrates the realm of snow and throws light golden spots on the branches of pines, on a forest clearing in the distance. Nothing breaks the silence of this amazingly beautiful winter day.

A rich palette of shades of white, brown and gold conveys the state of winter nature, her beauty. Shown here collective image winter forest. The picture is full of epic sound.

Bewitched by the Enchantress Winter, the forest stands -
And under the snowy fringe, motionless, mute,
He shines with a wonderful life.
And he stands, bewitched ... enchanted by a magical dream,
All shrouded, all shackled with a light downy chain ...

(F. Tyutchev)

The picture was painted in the year of the artist's death, he, as it were, resurrected the motifs close to his heart associated with the forest, with pines. The landscape was exhibited at the 26th Traveling Exhibition and met with a warm welcome from the progressive public.

The artist depicted a pine mast forest illuminated by the sun. Pine trunks, their needles, the bank of a forest stream with a rocky bottom are bathed in slightly pinkish rays, the state of rest is emphasized by a transparent stream sliding over pure stones.

The lyricism of evening lighting is combined in the picture with the epic characters of a giant pine forest. Huge tree trunks with several girths, their calm rhythm give the whole canvas a special monumentality.

"Ship Grove" - ​​the artist's swan song. In it, he sang of his homeland with its mighty slender forests, clear waters, resinous air, blue skies, with a gentle sun. In it, he conveyed that feeling of love and pride in the beauty of the mother earth, which did not leave him throughout his creative life.

Noon summer day. It just rained. There are puddles on the country road. The moisture of warm rain is felt both on the gold of the grain field and on the emerald green of the grass with bright wildflowers. The purity of the earth washed by the rain is made even more convincing by the sky brightened after the rain. Its blue is deep and pure. The last mother-of-pearl-silvery clouds run away to the horizon, giving way to the midday sun.

It is especially valuable that the artist was able to soulfully betray the nature renewed after the rain, the breath of the refreshed earth and grass, the thrill of running clouds.

Vital truthfulness and poetic spirituality make the painting "Noon" a work of great artistic value.

The canvas depicts a flat landscape of central Russia, the calm beauty of which is crowned by a mighty oak. Endless expanses of the valley. In the distance, the ribbon of the river gleams a little, a white church is barely visible, and further towards the horizon, everything is drowned in a foggy blue. There are no boundaries of this majestic valley.

The country road winds through the fields and is lost in the distance. On the sides of its flowers - daisies sparkle in the sun, unpretentious hawthorn blooms, thin stalks of panicles lean low. Fragile and delicate, they emphasize the strength and grandeur of a mighty oak, proudly towering over the plain. Deep pre-storm silence reigns in nature. Gloomy shadows from the clouds ran across the plain in dark waves. A terrible storm is coming. The curly green of the giant oak is motionless. He, like a proud hero, expects a duel with the elements. Its powerful trunk will never bend under the blows of the wind.

This is Shishkin's favorite theme - the theme of centuries-old coniferous forests, forest wilderness, majestic and solemn nature in its unperturbed peace. The artist was well able to convey the character of a pine forest, majestically calm, embraced by silence. The sun gently illuminates the hillock near the stream, the tops of centuries-old trees, leaving the forest wilderness immersed in the shade. Snatching the trunks of individual pines from the forest dusk, the golden light of the sun reveals their harmony and height, the wide scope of their branches. Pine trees are not only correctly depicted, not only similar, but beautiful and expressive.

Notes of subtle folk humor are introduced by amusing figures of bears looking at a hollow with wild bees. The landscape is bright, clean, serenely joyful in mood.

The picture is painted in cold silver-green tones. Nature is saturated with damp air. The blackened trunks of oaks are literally shrouded in moisture, streams of water flow along the roads, raindrops bubble in puddles. But the cloudy sky is already beginning to lighten. Penetrating the mesh of fine rain hanging over oak grove, a silvery light is pouring from the sky, it is reflected in steel-gray highlights on wet leaves, the surface of a black wet umbrella is silvering, wet stones, reflecting light, acquire an ashy hue. The artist forces the viewer to admire the subtle combination of dark silhouettes of trunks, milky-gray veil of rain and silvery muted gray shades of greenery.

In this canvas, more than in any other picture of Shishkin, the nationality of his perception of nature was revealed. In it, the artist created an image of great epic power and a truly monumental sound.

A wide plain stretching to the very horizon (the artist deliberately places the landscape along an elongated canvas). And everywhere, wherever you look, ripened grain is earing. The oncoming gusts of wind sway the rye in waves - from this sharper feeling how tall, fat and thick she is. The undulating field of ripe rye seems to be filled with gold, casting a dull sheen. The road, turning, cuts into the thick of the loaves, and they immediately hide it. But the movement is continued by tall pines lined up along the road. It seems as if the giants are walking across the steppe with a heavy, measured tread. Powerful, complete heroic forces nature, rich, free land.

A sultry summer day portends a thunderstorm. From the long standing heat, the sky has discolored, lost its sonorous blue. The first thunderclouds are already creeping over the horizon. WITH big love and skillfully painted the foreground of the picture: and the road covered with light dust, with swallows flying over it, and fat ripe ears, and white heads of daisies, and cornflowers blue in the gold of rye.

The painting "Rye" is a generalized image of the motherland. It sounds victorious solemn anthem abundance, fertility, majestic beauty of the Russian land. A huge faith in the power and richness of nature, with which it rewards human labor, is the main idea that guided the artist when creating this work.

The artist perfectly captured the sunlight in the study, the gaps of the bright blue sky in contrast with the greenery of the oak crown, the transparent and quivering shadows on the trunks of old oaks.

The painting is based on the poem of the same name by M.Yu. Lermontov.

The theme of loneliness sounds in the picture. On an impregnable bare rock, in the middle pitch darkness, snow and ice, stands a lonely pine. The moon illuminates the gloomy gorge and the endless distance covered with snow. It seems that in this realm of cold there is nothing alive, everything around is frozen. numb. But on the very edge of the cliff, desperately clinging to life, a lone pine stands proudly. Heavy flakes of sparkling snow fettered its branches, pulling down to the ground. But the pine bears its loneliness with dignity, the power of severe cold is unable to break it.

"Forest hero-artist", "king of the forest" - this is how contemporaries called Ivan Shishkin. He traveled a lot around Russia, singing the majestic beauty of its nature in his paintings, which are known to everyone today.

“There has never been an artist in the Shishkin family!”

Ivan Shishkin was born into a merchant family in the small town of Elabuga in the Vyatka province (on the territory of modern Tatarstan). The artist's father, Ivan Vasilievich, was a highly respected person in the city: he was elected mayor for several years in a row, installed a wooden water pipe in Yelabuga at his own expense, and even created the first book about the history of the city.

Being a man of versatile hobbies, he dreamed of giving his son a good education and at the age of 12 he sent him to the First Kazan Gymnasium. However, young Shishkin was already more interested in art than exact sciences. He was bored at the gymnasium and, without completing his studies, he returned to parental home with the words that he does not want to become an official. At the same time, his views on art and the vocation of the artist began to take shape, which he retained throughout his life.

Shishkin's mother, Daria Alexandrovna, was frustrated by her son's inability to study and do household chores. She did not approve of his passion for drawing and called this activity "dirty paper." Although his father sympathized with Ivan's passion for beauty, he also did not share his detachment from life problems. Shishkin had to hide from his relatives and paint by candlelight at night.

Shishkin seriously thought about the profession of an artist for the first time when Moscow painters arrived in Yelabuga to paint the iconostasis of the local church. They told him about the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture - and then Ivan Ivanovich firmly decided to follow his dream. With difficulty, but he persuaded his father to let him leave, and he sent the artist to Moscow, hoping that the second Karl Bryullov would one day grow out of his son.

"The image of everything that life has is the main difficulty of art"

In 1852, Shishkin entered the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, where he studied under the guidance of the portrait painter Apollon Mokritsky. Then, in his still weak works, he dreamed of getting as close to nature as possible, and he constantly sketched views and details of the landscape that were interesting to him. The whole school gradually learned about his drawings. Fellow students and even teachers noted that "Shishkin draws views that no one has ever painted before him: just a field, a forest, a river - and they come out of him as beautifully as the Swiss views." By the end of the training, it became clear: the artist had an undoubted - and indeed one of a kind - talent.

Not stopping there, in 1856 Shishkin entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, where he quickly established himself as a brilliant student with outstanding abilities. Valaam became a true school for the artist, where he went to summer work on location. He started to get own style and attitude towards nature. With the attention of a biologist, he examined and felt the trunks of trees, grasses, mosses, and the smallest leaves. His sketch "Pine on Valaam" brought the author a silver medal and recorded Shishkin's desire to convey the simple, not romanticized beauty of nature.

Ivan Shishkin. Stones in the forest. Balaam. 1858-1860. State Russian Museum

Ivan Shishkin. Pine on Valaam. 1858. Perm State Art Gallery

Ivan Shishkin. Landscape with a hunter. Balaam. 1867. State Russian Museum

In 1860, Shishkin graduated from the academy with a large gold medal, which he also received for the views of Valaam, and went abroad. He visited Munich, Zurich and Geneva, wrote a lot with a pen, and for the first time tried to engrave with “aqua regia”. In 1864, the artist moved to Düsseldorf, where he began work on "View in the vicinity of Düsseldorf". This landscape, filled with air and light, brought Ivan Ivanovich the title of academician.

After six years of traveling abroad, Shishkin returned to Russia. At first he lived in St. Petersburg, where he met with old comrades from the academy, who by that time had organized the St. Petersburg Artel of Artists (later - the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions). According to the memoirs of Alexandra Komarova, the painter's niece, he himself was never a member of the artel, but he constantly visited the creative Fridays of his friends and took the most active part in their affairs.

In 1868, Shishkin married for the first time. His wife was the sister of a friend, landscape painter Fyodor Vasiliev - Evgenia Alexandrovna. The artist loved her and the children born in marriage, could not leave them for a long time, because he believed that something terrible would definitely happen at home without him. Shishkin turned into a gentle father, a sensitive husband and a hospitable host, in whose house friends were constantly visiting.

"The genius of art demands that the whole life of the artist be devoted to him"

In the 1870s, Shishkin became even closer to the Wanderers, becoming one of the founders of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. His friends were Konstantin Savitsky, Arkhip Kuinzhdi and Ivan Kramskoy. With Kramskoy they had especially warm relationship. The artists traveled together in Russia in search of a new nature, Kramskoy watched Shishkin's successes and admired how his friend and colleague was attentive to nature in its various states, how accurately and subtly he conveyed color. Shishkin's talent was once again noted by the Academy, raising him to the rank of professor for the painting "Forest Wilderness".

“He [Shishkin] is still immeasurably higher than all taken together, so far ... Shishkin is a milestone in the development of the Russian landscape, this man is a school, but a living school.”

Ivan Kramskoy

However, the second half of this decade was hard time in the life of Shishkin. In 1874, his wife died, causing him to withdraw, his character - and efficiency - began to deteriorate due to frequent binges. Due to constant quarrels, many relatives and friends stopped communicating with him. Apparently, the habit of work saved him: because of his vanity, Shishkin could not afford to miss the place that he already firmly occupied in artistic circles, and continued to paint pictures that were becoming more and more popular thanks to traveling exhibitions. It was during this period that “First Snow”, “Road in a Pine Forest”, “Pine Forest”, “Rye” and other famous paintings by the master were created.

Ivan Shishkin. Pinery. Mast forest in the Vyatka province. 1872. State Tretyakov Gallery

Ivan Shishkin. First snow. 1875. Kyiv National Museum Russian art, Kyiv, Ukraine

Ivan Shishkin. Rye. 1878. State Tretyakov Gallery

And in the 1880s, Shishkin married the beautiful Olga Lagoda, his student. His second wife also died, literally a year after the wedding - and the artist again plunged headlong into work, which allowed him to forget. He was attracted by the variability of the states of nature, he sought to capture and capture the elusive nature. He experimented with combinations of different brushes and strokes, perfected the construction of forms, the transfer of the most delicate color shades. This painstaking work is especially noticeable in the works of the late 1880s, for example, in the landscapes “Pines illuminated by the sun”, “Oaks. Evening”, “Morning in a pine forest” and “Off the coast of the Gulf of Finland”. Contemporaries of Shishkin's paintings were amazed by how easily and freely he experimented, while achieving amazing realism.

“What interests me most now? Life and its manifestations, now, as always"

IN late XIX century, a difficult period for the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions began - artists had more and more generational disagreements. Shishkin, on the other hand, was attentive to young authors, because he tried to introduce something new into his work and understood that the cessation of development meant decline even for an eminent master.

"IN artistic activity, in the study of nature, you can never put an end to it, you can’t say that you have learned it completely, thoroughly, and that you don’t need to study anymore; studied well only for the time being, and after the impression they turn pale, and, not constantly coping with nature, the artist himself will not notice how he will leave the truth.

Ivan Shishkin

In March 1898, Shishkin died. He died at the easel while working on new painting. The artist was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery in St. Petersburg, but in 1950 his ashes were transferred along with the monument to the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.