To receive recognition after death is not uncommon in the world of creators. However, this cup passed Ivan Ivanovich. He was drawn to the brush since childhood, so his parents called him "mashilka". Shishkin dropped out of high school at a young age and devoted himself to drawing. He explained his choice as follows: "In order not to become an official."
By the time he graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Shishkin was already well known and appreciated abroad.
Later, from 1862 to 1865, the artist lived abroad. Mainly in Germany. In Düsseldorf he painted extensively in the Teutoburg Forest. And already at that time, his work was wildly popular with local residents.
Ivan himself wrote in his memoirs: “Wherever and wherever you go, they show everywhere - this Russian has gone, even in stores they ask if you are the Russian Shishkin who draws so superbly?”
Revelry and bully
Ivan Ivanovich's youth was rather stormy. Night gatherings with friends over a bottle or two did not always end peacefully.
Contemporaries recall the duel that took place in one of the taverns in Munich. The artist, who was vacationing with friends, heard two young Germans at the next table making derogatory jokes about Russia. It should be noted that, while studying abroad, Shishkin was very homesick. “Why am I not in Russia, which I love so much?” he wrote.
Therefore, hairpins against our country did not go unpunished. Ivan demanded an apology, and, without waiting, rushed to the attack.
Witnesses were then confused in their testimony: someone claimed that the Russian artist knocked out seven, others swore that there were at least a dozen defeated. Still, after all, Shishkin wielded a heavy cart kingpin that fell under his arm. This pin, which was rather bent, was presented in court as evidence of the Russian's guilt.
However, it did not come to punishment, the victims admitted they were wrong, and the patriotic painter was acquitted. They say that friends carried Ivan Ivanovich out of the courthouse in their arms in order to go to celebrate the victory in the nearest pub.
Were there bears?
Few people know that due to the image on the wrapper of Soviet chocolates, Shishkin did not write the most popular painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” at all, but in collaboration with his friend, the famous animal painter Konstantin Savitsky. It is his brushes that belong to the figures of cubs. The signature on the canvas was also double.
The bears were not drawn by Shishkin at all. Photo: reproduction
The painting was bought by the famous art collector Pavel Tretyakov. However, Tretyakov had a difficult relationship with Savitsky, and the collector said: “I only bought a painting by Shishkin - I didn’t buy Savitsky!” He ordered the second signature to be washed away. Since then, the picture has been exhibited in the sole authorship of Ivan Ivanovich.
By the way, many incorrectly call the painting "Three Bears", because it depicts four bear cubs. It’s just that in the USSR sweets “Clumsy Bear” with a reproduction of this work were sold, and among the people the sweets were nicknamed “Three Bears”.
tragic love
The personal life of the painter was truly tragic, despite the fact that he was married twice, and both for love.
His first wife was Evgenia Vasilyeva, the sister of the talented landscape painter Fyodor Vasilyev, whom Shishkin took care of and taught the basics of craftsmanship. Unfortunately, Evgenia Alexandrovna died in April 1874. A little later, their little son also died.
Broken by grief, the artist abandoned his work for a while and left for the countryside, where he became addicted to alcohol.
However, he was able to return to life, and already in 1875, at the 4th Traveling Exhibition, he presented a number of paintings, including Spring in a Pine Forest.
After some time, Shishkin married a second time. On Olga Antonovna Lagoda, her student, landscape painter. But this time, too, happiness was short-lived - his wife died at the age of thirty-one, leaving a widower with two daughters.
Death at the easel
Ivan Ivanovich died, as befits a creator, at work. It happened on March 8, 1898. The artist was 66 years old, and he was full of creative plans. Shishkin sat at the easel and worked on his new painting "Forest Kingdom".
According to the testimonies of a student helping him, making some stroke, the artist suddenly seemed to yawn, and then his head helplessly sank on his chest...
The last work of the artist is kept in the Russian Museum. Photo: reproduction
The student rushed to help his teacher, but he was already dead. Arriving doctor stated death from heart failure.
The last completed work of the artist was the majestic composition "Ship Grove", which is stored in the "Russian Museum".
When a person has a carload of money, he has everything, and he does not need anything for a long time, he begins to collect works of art. This is an immutable law. Then he becomes a crazy collector and is ready to do anything to get a shabby piece of canvas smeared with old paints.
The businessman had enough money. Therefore, he also became a collector-fanatic, bought nineteenth-century Russian paintings like sausage during perestroika and considered himself a happy person ... Until he invited an expert from the Tretyakov Gallery to show off his collection.
Yes, my friend, you have more paintings by Kiselyov than in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum, - said the expert. - Maybe it's not Kiselev. I would think about this question.
Both Businessman and experts thought about this question. The latter gave a conclusion - landscapes of the nineteenth century, not bad, only the signatures are fake.
The businessman, who had hoped for the spouses of the Urozhenskys (surnames changed) in the well-known Moscow art dealers, who had collected a collection for him, approached them with a question - well, how did it happen. How will we destroy? Was sent in an unspecified direction. Then they promised to set the police and the lads on him. And the victim had to go to the police himself.
So this couple caught our eye. And the sensational long-suffering business of collectors began. It was pulled by our investigative team of employees of the GUUR, the DEB and the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for three years. And the picture before us appeared enchanting.
At the beginning of the 2000s, oil prices began to rise, there was a lot of money, and the bourgeoisie began to overstock with works of art, reasonably judging that this was the best way to invest capital. For ideological and patriotic reasons, they preferred Russian painting, so that with a pine forest and a river. As a result, prices for these paintings began to rise wildly. And there was a strange situation. We take pictures of the same quality and merits of the authors of the same period. The one by a Russian artist is dozens of times more expensive than the Western one. And then a brilliant idea appeared - if the paintings differ only in signatures, then why not remake this signature. It's like a checkbook - the price of Rockefeller's and Sidorov's signatures are different. This is how the "turners" appeared. And Western paintings became Russian.
We have opened the scheme. One antiquary, one of the authoritative Georgian bros, Dima Lineinikov, bought paintings at Western auctions that were similar in style to Russian classics. They were taken to Russia, and unnecessary elements of the landscape, such as sheep or German houses, were removed. And De la Cour worth seven thousand euros became Alexander Kiselev worth one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. For this work at the Institute of Restoration named after Academician Grabar, an examination was carried out by a very gullible expert. After that, the picture was handed over to the Urozhensky spouses, who had a lot of clients. And this system worked without failure, because it never occurred to anyone to double-check the examinations. Thus, only one victim, they drove under a dozen paintings somewhere in the amount of about a million dollars.
As an investigator from our group said in fifteen years of service, he will not remember a single such scandalous case. The battles were fought not so much on the legal, but on the corruption and information fields. We, the operas, were approached with a proposal: a million dollars is enough for you, but you only need one thing - not to get excited and not write letters to higher authorities. And we were hot, silverless, and arranged for everyone such a Kuzkin mother that this many times buried was resurrected like a Phoenix. There were also battles in the information fields. The media were clearly divided in two - for us and against.
She comes to me and says - a very interesting thing. And for some five thousand dollars I will write everything as it was.
This is how the injured visit of a well-known crime reporter described it to us.
And I felt embarrassed. I got robbed anyway. Now I have to feed the journalists. Generally sent. Well, here's the result.
The businessman showed a well-known newspaper, a full spread of which was occupied by a tear-jerking exposé about how poor antique dealers fell into the clutches of professional crooks. The funny thing is that the victim in the Soviet Union served ten for fraud, and the defendants were both candidates of science - Tanyusha Urozhenskaya, candidate of art history, and her husband Igor - associate professor, candidate of philosophy. So the story for those who were not in the know was very convincing. Rogues harass art historians.
In fact, I have never seen such frostbitten aunts as Tanyusha in my life. If she bit the bit, then she could not keep it. In St. Petersburg, she alone went to the arrows with the lads and came out the winner. She screwed her second husband so that he was afraid to breathe without her permission. And the first husband generally disappeared without a trace when he had the imprudence to quarrel with her and instruct a black eye. She was an excellent shot, and when we went to her apartment, she met us with a “wasp” injury at the ready. Thank God, the Soviets on the machine gun and reflexes did not shoot her, but only disarmed her.
By the way, that journalist did not calm down, she wrote articles even when her protégés had been in prison for a long time, and in the end she published a book about the most famous authorities of the criminal world in Russia. And there the very first chapter, in front of the Yaponichki, the Kitaichiki and the Taiwanese, was about the Businessman and his henchmen cops - that is, about us, who ruined the unworthy intellectuals. At the trial, the journalist, who was called to testify, when asked where she got such information, said:
So Tatyana and her mother told me.
Tanyusha herself rolled the papers wherever she had to. She sent a carbon copy complaint about the arbitrariness on the part of the victim to the name of the Prosecutor General and to the name of one thieves' authority. In writing - I ask you to take action. The lads fell aside, deciding that the devil himself would break his leg in these antique cases, and the Businessman seemed to be a normal person.
The excitement around the case arose wild. Several documentaries and countless TV shows have been released on TV. I'm tired of giving interviews. Journalists from all our media, American news agencies, French and German magazines stood in line, where my photos appeared against the backdrop of evening Moscow with a postscript - a fighter against the antique mafia. So I got some kind of unhealthy fame, which then went sideways to me.
Most importantly, the antique market was in a fever. Because only a true art dealer knows how much "bullshit" he has shaken off his fellow collectors. But that was the beginning. Further, a true nightmare came to the antique world in the form of the most eminent Moscow expert Sidorov. He gave opinions on almost all serious sold paintings of the nineteenth century. At the same time, he had a bad habit of photographing them. After the start of the scandal, he looked up his archives, checked them with the catalogs of Sotheby's, Christie, and revealed about two hundred fakes, on which he himself gave the wrong conclusions. A significant part of them has already been sold, even to federal museums. The price ranged from one hundred thousand dollars to two million. The total amount of all this shaft was several hundred million dollars. All of Moscow knew about these secret lists of Sidorov, but he did not show them to anyone. Given the price of the issue, reputable guys seriously considered the option of liquidating him, in connection with which his oligarch friend gave him protection.
We met with Sidorov in the center of Moscow, where he was walking, accompanied by big men, looking around in a haunted manner and having the appearance of a kamikaze who bravely decided to part with his life for the sake of a holy goal.
Yes, I gave the conclusion that these are paintings by Russian artists. There is no difference at all between some Western and Russian artists of that time. And it's easy to confuse them. But you should keep in mind that Dime picked up paintings by a very good art critic. And a very good artist made signatures.
Taking a breath, he continued:
Understand, this is an international mafia. This is Cosa Nostra. There is huge money. And what are they doing. They don't just fool people. They are writing a new history of art. They destroy entire periods of activity of Western artists. And unknown periods of Russians appear. This is the creation of virtual reality.
I was soon convinced of this when I learned that a dissertation on the unknown pages of the classic's work was defended on the basis of the turned picture.
Sidorov stopped fearing for his life when he posted the results of his research on the Internet, and then the Ministry of Culture also published a black book with all the rewritings he had identified. And then a cry of despair and pain swept over Russia. Returns of paintings and money went. Breakdowns have begun. Thank God no one was killed - in this environment, issues are resolved in an intelligent way.
We hoped that the victims would come to us in droves, but they acted easier. They began to sharply resell what the Urozhenskys had driven to them. One St. Petersburg gangster oligarch, to whom these swindlers sold "vanguardists" for five million dollars, generally hid from us for a year, just not to testify. Another lady, the wife of a major official, who bought Shishkin's landscape for almost a million dollars, flatly turned to write a statement:
What are you. My husband will kill me first - what a million things. And then the media will tear the husband apart - where did he get a million from.
Things were going neither shaky nor rolls. The Investigative Committee stubbornly ruined him - thanks to the investigator. As a result of the scandal we raised, the criminal case was transferred to the GSU of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate of Moscow, and there they pushed it into court under Part 4. Art. 159 (especially large-scale fraud) and c. 164 (theft of items of special cultural value). Result: the expert managed to get away - "I'm not guilty, I made a mistake, fool." She was kicked out of her job and she gives opinions in a private firm. Art dealers Urozhensky received about a dozen and were released on parole after half a term. Dima Linneinikov managed to escape from under our noses to Belgium before being arrested (someone warned him), and then he rushed off to one Transcaucasian republic and now he is waiting for the statute of limitations to run out, from time to time he sends “Humanitarian Aid” to Moscow - new fake pictures with expert opinions.
But that was only the beginning. We plunged headlong into the bewitching world of art fakes. And they soon found out that everything was forged. Old books, furniture, dishes. Decorative and applied art. One Faberge counterfeiter (imported it from Israel) honestly earned his million in cash from this, but did not have time to use it - his corpse was found in an apartment on Olimpiyskiy Prospekt, there was no million with him. The case hung, but according to available information, his accomplice slammed - whoever whistled his hat, he poked his grandmother. Forged old books, stamps. Even church bells. They forge porcelain of the twenties with Soviet symbols, selling dishes with a hammer and sickle for a hundred thousand bucks. In Konakovo, a whole production line made fake Soviet porcelain, which is more expensive than the imperial one. One of Lansere's descendants took out molds and poured iron and copper things, claiming that they were old and inherited.
In the craft of a counterfeiter, almost the main thing is to invent the history of a thing and try to document it (provenance). We detained a gypsy who bought a cassock and in the Numismatist club offered fake gold coins for twenty thousand bucks, which he allegedly found while repairing his church. For skeptics, he arranged excursions to an outside church near Moscow, standing in scaffolding. Moscow swindlers found in the provinces the great-grandson of a very famous artist of the nineteenth century, brought him into Moscow society. And by the way, he mentioned that the pictures in the attic were left from grandfather. These "shoes" hang today in the collections of many banks and houses on Rublyovka, and those scammers flourish, one made a dizzying career in the civil service.
The cost of such creativity, as a rule, is ten or even a hundred times less than dividends. All this business is international. Paintings are sold at Western auctions, with the help of Western comrades (mostly Germans) they are remade, and sold to suckers already in Russia. Or vice versa. At the same time, in the West itself, the market for fakes is huge - they fake antique figurines, paintings - for ten euros, and for ten million. One of the great accomplices of the twentieth century, de Hory, after serving time, admitted that a bunch of his paintings hang in museums and private collections, but he would never tell anyone about them. Venerable artists begin to forge during their lifetime. Aivazovsky created about two thousand works, and now fifteen thousand of them are walking around the world. Some paintings have been discussed for decades - the original or a fake, and still it remains unclear, because, unlike conventional wisdom, experts are far from omnipotent and often give opposite conclusions, substantiating them very authoritatively, and then it remains to your taste to believe someone either of them.
New things followed. He personally detained the founding father of the "re-faces" Alex Lakhnovsky. Such smart and greedy rogues are all over the Earth. All Moscow crooks learned from him. God did not offend him with his brains. Chess grandmaster, he played in championships with Karpov, Kasparov. But he achieved the greatest success as a fraudster. We tied him up when he bought a picture of a German Gugel for twenty thousand euros, turned it over in the Baltic states, received a conclusion and sold it for seven hundred and fifty thousand to one of the capital's banks. When the measure of restraint was discussed, he, old and sickly, lamented plaintively that he was a law-abiding person and there was no need to keep him behind bars. Thank God, we asked Interpol about him. Rotozei go to court sessions to gawk. And when the judge read out the certificate from Interpol, there was an admiring silence in the hall.
Accused of fraud with paintings in Germany, Belgium, persona non-grant at all auctions. Been prosecuted for decades. but not a single case has been brought to trial. He was also charged with grievous bodily harm,” the judge paused and finished. And in the drug business.
The hall exploded with laughter and applause. And the lawyer from an excess of feelings almost rushed at me and the investigator into a fight.
He could receive conditionally, but did not reimburse the victims a penny, although, according to the most conservative estimates, he stole hundreds of millions of dollars - he transferred all the money into diamonds and shoved it into bank cells all over Europe. Now dead. Considering his relationship with relatives, the treasures lie ownerless in cells.
Interestingly, when we detained him, they immediately jumped to us from the German embassy - they say, why are you detaining our citizen. Then the Germans made inquiries about him and never showed up again. He managed to throw sixty thousand euros to his neighbors, who were relatives of the prosecutor of this city. So the Germans did not expect Alex to go home.
Then things went to the avant-garde. This is an absolutely amazing topic. The Russian avant-garde of the twenties of the twentieth century likes to fake most of all. Because it costs a lot of money, and it is the easiest to draw. Titian you will be embarrassed to write. And Chagall - for an hour of work. In general, the avant-garde is a complete scam. There is a foreign fund of a very famous Russian avant-garde artist, so without his permission, not a single painting is recognized as genuine. And it is recognized only for a rollback of twenty percent. The heirs of the famous Moscow writer, to whom this artist himself presented his canvas, decided to arrange a bargain bypassing the fund. So all the same, the buyers went to the stockists, and they, out of the kindness of their hearts, wrote that the painting belongs to the students of the classic, and even brought it into the appropriate catalog. So from three million dollars she lost weight to a thousand. This fund has its own "fond-based" artist who got his hands on repeating the classics. And in a year they make one fake picture, they immediately recognize it, and this is three or four million dollars.
Together with the FSB of Russia, we packed up a whole family office. The guys made up a fairy tale that a poor collector lives in Uzbekistan, who really needs money. At one time, he stole avant-garde paintings from Soviet museums, which were then thrown out of the funds because of their alienness and low artistic value. And now he has accumulated several hundred unique paintings. The two brothers of the artist sat from morning to evening, drawing avant-garde artists and, through their daughter, sold them to the chairman of an art fund, who completely lost his mind from the realization of the wealth that had fallen on him. And a river of bucks flowed - hundreds of thousands, over and over again. We seized three hundred fake works. During the arrest, the daughter, an experienced drug addict, threw away the drugs, bit our employee with hepatine teeth and tried to jump off the thirteenth floor.
And there are plenty of clowns. There was a whole series of scandals in the West, when, with our help, several galleries of immigrants from Russia were covered with hundreds of paintings by fake avant-garde artists.
The topic of replacing paintings in funds with fakes also arose. In my memory, the director and chief curator of the Astrakhan Museum were convicted for stealing a painting by Aivazovsky, which is still on the wanted list. I remember a case when, it seems, at Christie's auction, representatives of the Khanty-Mansiysk Museum almost conspired to buy a pretty big Shishkin for two lemons of petrodollars, when the director of the Bukovsky Helsinki auction yelled:
I remember her. This is not Shishkin. I recently bought it for ninety thousand! There were still cows, but they were covered up!
How many fakes hang in museums - no one knows. And how many coins have been replaced - they are the easiest to steal, as a rule they are not described.
They can take a picture from a person for sale, and return a fake - they say, this was it.
Our employees took part in searches of the prominent military commander Vasilyeva. So her whole apartment is hung with fake paintings that she bought in St. Petersburg.
Well, what now? We have reached the main point. If earlier, in order to sell a painting, it was enough for a crooked record of an expert and an honest word of a swindler, now serious things are not sold without two or three examinations. So the market for fakes has shrunk a lot. But he exists. In addition to repainters, there are also such accomplices, mainly from St. Petersburg, who make such paintings on old canvases with old paints that entire commissions of experts recognize their authenticity.
Relative order has been put in place with expertise. The unscrupulous experts began to fear. The rules have become more stringent.
Experts are for the most part devoted to their work. But sometimes you come across such ... I remember two terribly impudent aunts from the most famous federal museum, with thirty thousand rubles in salary and two-carat diamonds in their ears. They gave a conclusion about the authenticity of such Aivazovsky, whom even a schoolboy would not look at without tears of pity. And when we showed up to them with presentations, they insolently announced:
The one that we examined was, well, exactly the same Aivazovsky as this one, only genuine. Photos? X-ray? It was so long ago. Everything has already been destroyed.
And that's it. The documents have been destroyed. The statute of limitations has passed. The investigation is over, forget it.
In general, it is difficult to prove the guilt of an expert. We proposed to introduce into the Criminal Code the article "Knowingly false art history conclusion or assessment." And also "Forgery of works and art." Today, there is a term for forging a sick leave, and for forging Repin, public censure, since fraud is proved with great difficulty.
A new type of business has emerged. Now the experts take the real thing and say it's fake. It costs money to make it authentic again. They manage to refute their own conclusions, which were given several years ago.
There are many things you can do if you want. These are passports of works of art. And a developed system of transaction insurance, as in the West. And the creation of a powerful expert system… But who needs it, even if the licensing of antiques was removed, and the rules of antiques trade were lost in the depths of the Ministry of Economic Development a dozen years ago.
Now the art market is calm. Not enough money. Everyone is waiting for the rise in oil prices. Then the business will start again. Unfortunately, all the pretrubation in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in recent years has led to the liquidation of specialized units to combat the theft of cultural property. The departments created in 1992 at the GUUR, MUR, the legendary department in St. Petersburg, which returned to Russia items worth hundreds of millions, if not more, dollars, were ordered to live for a long time. For some reason, these units went under the knife in a rage of cuts and optimizations - they say, according to statistics, you have few crimes. Although one theft from the Hermitage will outweigh ten thousand thefts from pockets. So there will simply be no one to meet a new wave of antiquarian crimes.
Someday the units will be recreated again, but that will be another story. And you have to create everything from scratch. Well, enough of the sad stuff.
Although I went beyond the allowable volumes of text, I will not restrain myself. Finally, our victim's favorite anecdote. Bro stole money, decided to become a collector and goes to an antique store. There, the old Jewish director, seeing a stupid bull in front of him, drove him an old pioneer drum for a hundred thousand bucks under the guise of a Stradivarius drum. Then the bro was told that Stradivarius was playing violins, and he went to the Jew to sort it out.
Stradivari made violins! yells bro.
Nope, objected the store manager. “He made violins for suckers. And he made drums for the right guys ...
"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 in the exact sciences. He was bored in the gymnasium and, without completing his studies, he returned to his parents' house with the words that he did 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's 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 real school for the artist, where he went for summer work on location. He began to acquire his 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. They had a particularly warm relationship with Kramskoy. 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 a difficult time in Shishkin's life. 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. Kiev National Museum of 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"
At the end of the 19th century, a difficult period began for the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions - more and more generational disagreements arose among artists. 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 a 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.
Interesting facts about the artist I. Shishkin
Did you know that Ivan Shishkin did not write his masterpiece dedicated to bears in the forest alone.
An interesting fact is that for the image of bears, Shishkin attracted the famous animal painter Konstantin Savitsky, who coped with the task excellently. Shishkin quite fairly appreciated the contribution of the companion, so he asked him to put his signature under the picture next to his own. In this form, the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” was brought to Pavel Tretyakov, who managed to buy a painting from the artist in the process of work.
Seeing the signatures, Tretyakov was indignant: they say that he ordered the painting to Shishkin, and not to a tandem of artists. Well, he ordered to wash off the second signature. So they put up a picture with the signature of one Shishkin. Autobiography Ivan Shishkin was born on January 13 (January 25 - according to the new style), 1832 in Yelabuga, Vyatka province (now the Republic of Tatarstan) in the family of a merchant of the second guild, Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin. IV Shishkin was an outstanding personality. Thanks to his incorruptible honesty, he was respected by his fellow countrymen and for eight years was the mayor of Yelabuga, having worked hard for the good of the city. The wooden aqueduct he built is still partly in operation. The artist's talent It was the father, noticing his son's passion for art, who began to subscribe him to special articles and biographies of famous artists.
It was he who, having decided his fate, let the young man go to Moscow in 1852 to study at the School of Painting and Sculpture.
Shishkin early thought about the artistic "field". Four years spent in his father's house after his "escape" from Kazan (1848-52), he kept notes in which, as it were, he guessed his future life. We quote: "The artist must be a higher being, living in an ideal world of art and striving only for improvement. The properties of the artist: sobriety, moderation in everything, love of art, modesty of character, conscientiousness and honesty."
From 1852 to 1856, Shishkin studied at the recently opened (in 1843) Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture. His mentor was A. Mokritsky - a thoughtful and attentive teacher who helped the novice painter to find himself. In 1856, Shishkin entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. At the Academy, Shishkin stood out noticeably for his talents; his successes were marked by medals; in 1860 he graduated from the Academy with a large gold medal, received for two paintings "View on the island of Valaam. Kukko area" and giving the right to study abroad. But he was in no hurry to go abroad, instead in 1861 he went to Yelabuga. In his native places, Shishkin worked tirelessly. Work abroad From 1862 to 1865 Shishkin lived abroad - mainly in Germany and Switzerland, while visiting the Czech Republic, France, Belgium and Holland. In Düsseldorf, he wrote a lot in the Teutoburg Forest and was very popular among the locals. He himself ironically recalled: "Wherever and wherever you go, everywhere they show - this Russian has gone, even in stores they ask if you are the Russian Shishkin who draws so superbly?"
Creativity Shishkin
In 1836, a group of young realist specialists headed by I. Kramskoy left the Academy with great noise, refusing to paint a picture on a given topic. "Rebels" founded the Artel of Artists. At the end of the 1860s, Shishkin became close to this Artel.
From the Artel in 1870, the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions grew up, which became a symbol of a new artistic era.
The personal life of the artist The personal life of Shishkin developed tragically. He was married twice for love: first, to the sister of the talented landscape painter F. Vasilyev, who died early (whom he took care of and taught the basics of craftsmanship), Elena; then - on the artist Olga Ladoga. Both of them died young: Elena Alexandrovna - in 1874, and Olga Antonovna - in 1881. Lost Shishkin and two sons. Death especially concentrated around him by the mid-1870s (his father also died in 1872); the artist, who fell into despair, stopped writing for a while and became addicted to libations. Devotion to art But the mighty nature and devotion to art took their toll. Shishkin was one of those who could not help but work. He returned to a creative life, which in his last two decades almost without gaps coincided with his life in general. He lived only by painting, only by his native nature, which became his main theme.
He traveled a lot in Russia: he painted sketches in the Crimea, in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, on the Volga, on the Baltic coast, in Finland and present-day Karelia. Constantly exhibited - at personal, academic, traveling, commercial and industrial exhibitions. The death of the artist Shishkin and died at work. On March 8 (March 20 - according to the new style), 1898, he painted in the studio in the morning. Then he visited his relatives. Then, complaining of being unwell, he returned to the workshop. At some point, the assistant saw the master fall from his chair. Running up to him, he saw that Shishkin was no longer breathing.
Internet Sources:
An unsurpassed master of landscape painting, an outstanding artist who glorified Russian art, Ivan Shishkin was of merchant origin. Yelabuga was his hometown, where he was born in early 1832. Already in childhood, Ivan Shishkin was a gifted child and showed a penchant for drawing.
In the Imperial Academy of Arts of St. Petersburg, his talent was fully manifested. The years spent in Europe gave the artist the opportunity to develop his creative abilities. But he was always inspired by his native nature - forest, field, meadow, so he hurried back to Russia.
Shishkin brought up many students. During his creative life, Ivan Ivanovich created hundreds of works, many of which are recognized as masterpieces and today adorn the best museums in Russia and Europe.
Leaving the gymnasium
The most talented Russian landscape painter in his teens was an unsuccessful high school student. Arithmetic was not given at all, having picked up unsatisfactory grades, Ivan Shishkin was forced to leave the gymnasium in Kazan after four years of study. Yes, and Shishkin himself did not want to study there, he dreamed of painting.
Getting a big gold medal
Ivan Shishkin received an excellent art education. First, he studied at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow, and then brilliantly graduated from the Imperial Academy of Arts in the Russian capital.
He studied so well that already in the first year of study he became the owner of two small silver medals. His landscapes, depicting nature in the vicinity of the capital, brought him success. Later, Shishkin received first a large silver medal, and then a small gold one. A year later, he was awarded a large gold medal of the academy for his landscapes painted on Valaam, and she was entitled to a pension for a trip to Europe for several years.
Incident in Germany
The artist sincerely loved Russian nature, his work eloquently testifies to this. In Europe, he yearned for Russia, from longing he often drank wine. One day, in a Munich pub, he heard a company of tipsy Germans insulting Russians.
Shishkin immediately dealt with the offenders with the help of his fists and even a metal rod that turned up under his arm. The scandal erupted grandiose. The artist was sued. But, to the surprise of many, the court acquitted him. According to eyewitnesses, after the acquittal, friends carried Shishkin out of the courtroom in their arms.
Co-writing a famous painting
Shishkin's contemporaries spoke of him as a good connoisseur of nature, having scientific knowledge about it. This is what many explained such scrupulous accuracy in the image in all his landscapes.
However, one of his most famous works, “Morning in a Pine Forest,” was created by the artist in 1889 in collaboration with his friend, the artist Konstantin Savitsky, who depicted a family of bears on Shishkin’s canvas.
Shishkin, as a decent person, signed the work with two names. But at the request of the owner of the art gallery, Pavel Tretyakov, who purchased the painting, the name of the co-author was removed.
The title of academician and professor
Shishkin quickly gained recognition as an outstanding landscape painter. He was still in Europe on a pensioner's trip, when the Academy of Arts in 1865 awarded him the title of academician for the painting "View in the vicinity of Dusseldorf", this painting arrived in the capital of Russia before him.
Shishkin's works made a stunning impression. Ivan Ivanovich annually presented his works at the exhibition of the Wanderers, for one of these paintings, the painting "Forest Wilderness", in 1873 he was awarded the title of professor at the Moscow Academy of Arts. Since 1892, the artist began to lead the landscape painting workshop at the Academy, in addition, he always had many students.
Society of Aquaphorists
It is generally accepted that Ivan Shishkin was one of the best painters of his time. Not everyone knows that along with landscape painting, he was enthusiastically engaged in engraving. In the 70th year of the 19th century, the artist became an active member of the metropolitan circle of aquafortists, artists who engraved with strong vodka on metal, Shishkin never left this occupation, alternating it with landscape painting, and was considered one of the best engravers in St. Petersburg.
Death at the easel
The magnificent artist Ivan Shishkin was absorbed in creativity until the last minutes of his life. Suffice it to say that he is the author 800 paintings excluding drawings and engravings. He passed away suddenly at the age of 66 in March 1898, while he was working on the painting The Kingdom of the Forest. Next to the outstanding master at that moment was his student, who witnessed the death of the mentor literally at the easel. The doctors concluded that the artist's heart failed, obviously it was a heart attack.
Transfer of the grave of Ivan Shishkin
Not everyone knows that Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was originally buried at the Orthodox Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg. When in the 30s of the 20th century it was decided to create a necropolis of artists on the territory of the Tikhvin cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the burial places of outstanding artists, composers and artists were transferred here from various St. Petersburg cemeteries. Shishkin's grave was also moved here. This happened in 1950. However, the monument from his grave, which stood at the Smolensk cemetery, was lost, a new one was installed instead. Surprisingly, this new monument incorrectly indicated the date of birth of the painter, making him older by as much as two decades. Why the bug was not fixed remains a mystery.
