On July 26, the antique galleries "KABINET" in the Central House of Artists present an exhibition of all 60 etchings by Ivan Shishkin from the famous folder of A.F. Marx
Central House of Artists
July 26 - September 4, 2016,
Krymsky Val, 10/14, halls 14B and 15
On July 26, in the halls of the Central House of Artists on Krymsky Val, the exhibition "Etchings and graphics by Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin" will open, organized by the antique galleries "KABINET".
For the first time in a single exhibition space, all 60 etchings from the famous folder of A.F. Marx - the last and most complete album of printed graphics by I.I. Shishkin (1832–1898), who was considered by his contemporaries to be the best Russian aquafortist.
Just as Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" is called an encyclopedia of Russian life, the unique album of Shishkin's etchings, published by A.F. Marx in 1894 and including 60 of the best works, can be consonantly called an encyclopedia of Russian nature and man. On these etchings, all the smallest nuances of the seasons, day and night, the sun and the moon, the air of thunderstorms and heat, forests and fields, rivers and lakes are presented in the context of the inextricable “natural life” of Russian people.
This retrospective edition provides a comprehensive picture of the evolution of Shishkin's art as an etcher. Preparing the album, Shishkin collected all the boards that he had preserved, went through most of them with an etching needle and additional etching, some of them were altered compositionally, such as, for example, the etching of 1876 "Winter Night", which in the new album was called "Winter Moonlight Night". The album also includes nineteen new works that have not been released before.
Unfortunately, the fate of the folders of Shishkin's etchings, which prospered in the cozy world of the 19th century cabinet culture with its special cabinets and tables for storing and viewing engravings, was sad in the subsequent turbulent times. The vast majority of folders and albums were dismantled and sold as separate sheets. Today there are a lot of collectors who own many, maybe even the best examples. But until now it was not possible to show the famous folder in its entirety. Our exhibition allows the modern viewer to see this encyclopedia of Russian nature and man completely, without loss.
In addition to the Marx folder, the exposition presents individual rare etchings made both on paper and on silk: “Juniper. Crimea ”(1885), which became the last engraving“ Oak ”(1897), as well as a unique, existing in a single copy, color self-portrait of Shishkin from the collection of the publisher A.E. Palchikov. A total of 90 exhibits will be on display at the exhibition.
The organizers took the liberty of offering a new interpretation of Shishkin's etchings, transferring them to 3D images and combining the resulting stereo posters into thematic triptychs.
A catalog album was released for the exhibition, which included reproductions of works from the exhibition, as well as all known lists of the artist's etchings.
Traditionally, souvenirs will be available at the exhibition: postcards and decorative plates with reproductions, as well as posters made by hand using a unique author's technology, authentically imitating etching.
The exhibition will run from July 26 to September 4, 2016 daily, except Monday, from 11:00 to 20:00 in halls 14B and 15 on the second floor of the Central House of Artists on Krymsky Val.
Lipetsk Regional Art Museum presented an exhibition Ivan Shishkin. Etchings» from the collection of the Samara Regional Art Museum. The organized exhibition is consonant with the Year of Ecology announced in Russia.
Shishkin's landscapes have long ceased to be just a phenomenon in art, they are inextricably linked with Russian nature, they are like herself. Shishkin is not only one of the largest, but also perhaps the most popular author among Russian artists who have dedicated their work to this genre.
The majority of viewers named I.I. Shishkin is associated with picturesque landscapes - the exhibition will enable visitors to get to know the great master from a side less known to the general public - a graphic artist. Ivan Ivanovich's special love was etching. This technique allows you to get prints that convey all the subtleties of the author's drawing and at the same time make new changes and additions to the printed form. During his life, the great landscape painter created hundreds of brilliant drawings and large series of etchings.
In Shishkin's etchings, all the smallest nuances of the seasons, day and night, air, thunderstorms and heat, forests and fields, rivers and lakes are presented in the context of the inseparable "natural life" of Russian people. Shishkin's works in etching have a rare artistic expressiveness. The exhibition will allow the modern viewer to see Russian nature as the great artist saw it, as well as enjoy the little-known works of the outstanding master, the best of which have become classics of national graphics.
In total, the exhibition exhibits 45 etchings from the album “60 etchings by I.I. Shishkin 1870–1892”, published in 1894 by the St. Petersburg publishing house of Adolf Fedorovich Marx; album “25 copper engravings by I.I. Shishkin", 1878, printed in the printing house of St. Petersburg and separate etchings in 1873-1886.
You can visit the exhibition February 16 to April 30, 2017
at the address: Lipetsk, st. Lenina 7a.
May 22, 2015 in the exhibition hall of the Belgorod State Art Museum within the framework of the project "Property of Russian museums - Belgorod residents!" the solemn opening of the exhibition “Ivan Shishkin. Etchings" from the funds of the Sevastopol Art Museum. M.P. Kroshitsky.
At the exhibition, the viewer can get acquainted with an interesting and, at the same time, less known for the master's heritage - engravings. To the museum of M.P. Kroshitsky prints with images of nature came in 1989, the widow of the botanist and geologist Yevgeny Lavrenko, a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences and a passionate collector, donated a complete collection of printed works to the museum.
Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich was born on January 13, 1832 in the small provincial town of Yelabuga, located on the high bank of the Kama. At the age of 12, he was appointed as a student of the 1st Kazan gymnasium, but, having reached the 5th grade in it, he left it, explaining his act by the lack of desire to become an official.
Shishkin entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1852-1856) only at the age of twenty, with difficulty overcoming the foundations of the family, which opposed (with the exception of his father) his desire to become an artist. In August 1852, he was already included in the list of students admitted to the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, where he received good training under the guidance of Apollon Mokritsky, a former pupil of Alexei Venetsianov.
At the school, Ivan Shishkin immediately revealed himself as an unsurpassed landscape painter. Here he first became acquainted with the technique of engraving and reproduced someone else's work called "Mountain Road" (1853), but already in this work the original artistic style of the future master was felt.
The richness and diversity of plant forms truly captivated the artist. Everything seemed interesting to him - the image of an old stump, a snag, a dry tree, blades of grass in the wind. Ivan diligently studied the anatomy of nature, making many sketches from nature. All the drawings of the future master were extremely simple - a pine tree on a cliff or near the water, a bush on a swampy plain, a rocky bank of a winding river. At the same time, the artist depicted carts, sheds, fences, roadside chapels, apiaries and beehives, all kinds of boats, which later also found their place in many works, although they were of secondary importance.
By the end of his studies, Shishkin had already acquired some professional skills as a landscape painter and began to noticeably stand out among his comrades with talent. But the desire to improve the drawing prompted him in January 1856 to go to St. Petersburg to enter the Academy of Arts.
A few months after admission, Shishkin began to attract the attention of teachers with his landscapes depicting the environs of St. Petersburg, and in 1857 he received two small silver medals for them, and in 1858 a small gold medal. These years also include the first experiences of the young artist in lithography. According to the author's sketches, Ivan Shishkin performs 14 works with a lithographic pencil on stone for the book by Alexei Vladimirovich Vysheslavtsev "Essays in pen and pencil from the circumnavigation of the world (1857–1860)". But due to lack of funds, these works were published in the Russian Art Album only in 1961.
Shishkin's studies at the Academy of Arts under Socrates Vorobyov had almost no effect on his work. The real school for Ivan Ivanovich was the island of Valaam, which served as a place of summer practice for academic students and struck the artist with its granite rocks, centuries-old pines and firs. After graduating from the Academy of Arts in 1960 with a large gold medal for "The Kukko area on Valaam", Shishkin leaves for a pensioner's trip abroad.
In 1863, in Zurich (Switzerland), Shishkin visited the studio of painting professor Rudolf Koller, an animal painter and landscape painter. Koller at that time lived and worked in a house on the shores of the beautiful Lake Zurich, which, like the city itself, is surrounded by mountains. It was there that Ivan Shishkin again tried his hand at etching, popularly referred to by the engravers of that time as “royal vodka”. Later, the artist trially performs two more engravings, but they come out so good that they awaken the master's desire to take the creation of such works more seriously. Unfortunately, the ensuing return to his homeland and the need to work hard on paintings distract the artist from his favorite pastime.
Having received the title of academician upon his return from a pensioner trip, Shishkin becomes one of the founders of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. In 1970, he again took up engraving and founded the "Society of Russian Aquafortists" (1871-1874), being a founding member of the association. As more experienced among the members of the circle, he helps many with his advice and example, and together with them publishes his work in collective editions of engravings.
In the 70s, Shishkin began to devote more and more time to engravings, trying to carve out moments of leisure between writing major paintings. By this time, his famous paintings "Apiary in the Forest" (1876) and "Rye" (1878) belong.
If other contemporary artists mainly used etching to reproduce their works, then Ivan Shishkin found in it a way to create new works, allowing him to preserve the style and richness of the line-line drawing. He produces prints, both in single sheets and in whole series, each time more and more arousing the enthusiasm of collectors and forcing them to compete in pursuit of the first and best prints of works.
Shishkin devotes a lot of time and effort to the manufacture of etching boards and creates over a hundred sheets in his life, devoting them entirely to the image of his native Russian nature, in which he managed to organically combine the features of romanticism and realism. In addition to the usual technique with a needle, the artist actively used soft varnish, aquatint and dry needle in his work. At one time, in order to find a new, less costly and more effective way to reproduce his compositions, Shishkin undertook a series of experiments in zincography.
In 1968, the first album of his engravings (6 lithographs) “Etudes from Life with a Pen and on Stone” was published, in May 1873 he prepared and printed his first album of etchings (11 sheets), released as a prize from the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. The next two folders were published in 1878 and 1886, and in 1894 the album “60 Etchings by I.I. Shishkin. 1870-1892".
The retrospective album, released by the St. Petersburg publishing house of Adolf Fedorovich Marx, has incorporated all the best engravings of Ivan Shishkin. Today it is known for certain that although the publisher bought the etching boards from the artist in full ownership, he continued to replicate the sheets under the strict guidance of the master. And this is not surprising, Marx and Shishkin have long maintained partnerships. Their business ties were established when Ivan Ivanovich began illustrating Russia's first mass weekly magazine "for family reading" - "Niva".
It is noteworthy that the exhibition at the Belgorod State Art Museum presents all 60 etching sheets that were originally included in the album. Some of them were just being prepared as an appendix to the magazines "Bee", "Light" and "Niva".
Such works include the landscape "Beehives", the artist brought the beehives and the thatched barn closer to the viewer, shortened the detailed story and achieved a large capacity and integrity of the artistic image.
In the 80s and 90s, the artist was increasingly attracted by the changing states of nature, quickly passing moments. Thanks to his interest in the light-air environment, he is good at works with a changeable state of nature: the sky after the rain (“Before the Thunderstorm”, “On the River after the Rain”), at night (“On the Clearing”, “Gurzuf”) and twilight (“Dawn” ).
In Shishkin's etchings, one can find many images of monuments of natural and archaeological heritage. Among them are "Tsarev Kurgan", "Firs in Shuvalovsky Park" and "Ayu-Dag Mountain" - a portrait of a "failed" volcano, covered with relic plants, special varieties of pistachios and junipers.
"Forest Flowers", "First Snow", "Field", "Crimea" and many other works, in addition to their amazing fidelity to nature, immerse the viewer in a world of elusive sensations. The forest stream flows a little in the stones. Around you can see the picturesque faults of rocks and cliffs. The age-old fir trees, horse-drawn pines, oaks, birch groves and fern bushes are silent, keeping freshness in their leaves. The movement of waters and grasses seems to be - you see it not with your eyes, but you feel it. Silence and space everywhere.
Among the most interesting works of the exhibition is the etching "Anthill", and not one, but two. One of these valuable exhibits came to Belgorod with the rest of the album sheets, and the second was donated to the Belgorod State Art Museum in 2007 by the Governor of the Belgorod Region E.S. Savchenko for the opening of a new building.
The exhibition also features a self-portrait by Ivan Shishkin, painted in 1886. The background of the portrait is made with a dynamic touch, like most of the master's works.
Etchings by I.I. Shishkin are of great interest, as they give a visual concept of the various techniques of etching, the play of lines and shadows in black and white.
The works show the artist's desire for a plastic interpretation of natural forms, the anatomy of the drawing, as well as good professional training.
If he lived and worked in one of the European art centers of his time, or if he cared more about the distribution of prints abroad, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin would have been more famous as an excellent engraver. Unfortunately, today only ardent art lovers and passionate collectors pay tribute to Shishkin's etchings.
And in the end, I would like to note that this exposition is truly unique. It not only introduces the visitor to a rare printed edition, but also allows you to enjoy the little-known works of the outstanding master, the best of which have become classics of national painting and graphics.
July 26 - September 11
Central House of Artists, halls 14B and 15
Antique galleries "KABINET" presents an exhibition
“Unknown I.I. Shishkin. Etchings and drawings”, Moscow, Central House of Artists, 2016
For the third century now, the name of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin has been in the forefront of national artists, equally appreciated by both contemporaries and their descendants. It is amazing to what extent the assessments of the master's work, derived during his lifetime - by famous writers, art historians, fellow artists - are consonant with the perception of his work today. Artistic critical articles of the late 19th century abound with the most daring epithets.
One of the critics wrote about the publication of Shishkin's etchings: “Russia can be studied in these artistic essays with all the endless variety of its characteristic features, contrasts, subtle and elusive details for others. His only muse has forever become Russian nature, which he sings of in paintings, fine lyrical drawings, and masterful etchings. 
At this exhibition, for the first time in a single exhibition space, all 60 etchings will appear before the audience, which made up the last and most complete album of printed graphics by the famous master of the Russian landscape, published by A.F. Marx in 1894. “Artistic institution A.F. Marx", later the joint-stock company "Partnership of Publishing and Printing A.F. Marx" - one of the oldest and most famous Russian publishing houses - was founded in 1869 by a journalist and publisher Adolf Fedorovich Marx who came to Russia from Germany. Since 1870, Marx published the Niva, a mass illustrated weekly magazine "for family reading", founded by him and the first in Russia. The circulation of the magazine was huge, only the subscription to the magazine was over 250 thousand copies. The readers were especially interested in photo-correspondences about the most important world events and reproductions from paintings by prominent artists. 
Album “60 etchings by I.I. Shishkin" publishing house A.F. Marx in 1894 gives a comprehensive picture of the evolution of the work of Shishkin-etcher. Preparing the album, Shishkin collected all the boards that he had preserved, went through most of them with an etching needle and additional etching, some of them were altered compositionally, such as, for example, the etching of 1876 "Winter Night", which in the new album was called "Winter Moonlight Night". In addition to these works, the album also includes nineteen new, previously unreleased works, in particular, The Oak, created in 1886 and becoming the last work of the artist in etching technique. 
So what is etching? Etching (from French eau-forte) or aquaforte (from Italian acquaforte) is a type of engraving on metal, known since the beginning of the 16th century. For the manufacture of a printing plate (board), a metal plate, most often copper, is covered with acid-resistant varnish, on which the engraving pattern is scratched. The plate is then placed in an acid that will etch away the metal in the areas exposed to varnish, after which the remaining varnish is removed from the plate. Before printing, ink is applied to the board, which penetrates into the recesses etched with acid. The paint is removed from the smooth surface of the board. When printing, the ink from the recessed elements is transferred to the paper. 
Just as Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin" is called an encyclopedia of Russian life, Shishkin's unique album of etchings, which includes 60 of his best works, can be consonantly called an encyclopedia of Russian nature. These paintings depict all the smallest nuances of the seasons, day and night, the sun and the moon, the air of thunderstorms and heat, forests and fields, rivers and lakes in the context of the inextricable “natural life” of Russian people. 
Unfortunately, the fate of the folders of Shishkin's etchings, which prospered in the cozy world of the 19th century cabinet culture, which had special cabinets for storage and tables for viewing engravings and etchings, was sad in the subsequent turbulent times. The vast majority of folders and albums have been dismantled and sold as separate sheets. Today there are a lot of collectors who own many, maybe even the best examples. But until now it has not been possible to reproduce the famous folder in its entirety. The catalog published for the exhibition allows the viewer to see this encyclopedia of Russian nature and man in full, without loss. 
N. TOLSTAYA, scientific secretary of the State Tretyakov Gallery, E. GERASIMOVA, head. department of scientific and educational programs.
Until January 20, 2008, the State Tretyakov Gallery held an exhibition dedicated to the 175th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian landscape painter Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898). The exhibition featured more than 200 works from the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, from museum and private collections in Russia and foreign countries. In addition to the traditional exposition, in which this time the master's graphic works, drawings and engravings took a large place, there were also not quite ordinary objects - a magic lantern, a photographic apparatus and a device for viewing photographs. all these items stored in the Polytechnic Museum became part of a special didactic (from the Greek didaskein - to teach) exposition zone called "Shishkin's workshop". The section is intended for an active understanding of what the work of a realist artist was like in the era of discoveries in the field of photography, optics and technology, for the knowledge of the creative process, which Shishkin was very closely connected with the novelties and inventions of that era. Three themes are presented in the showcases of this section of the exhibition - technology, nature and optics.
Science and life // Illustrations
"Kama". 1882 Canvas, oil. Private collection.
"Winter". 1890 Canvas, oil. State Russian Museum.
G. G. Myasoedov. "First impression. Portrait of I. I. Shishkin. 1891 Canvas, oil. Penza Regional Art Gallery. K. A. Savitsky.
"Noon. Moscow suburbs. Bratsevo". 1866 Etude. Canvas, oil. Astrakhan State Art Gallery named after B. M. Kustodiev.
Exposition of the didactic section "Shishkin's Workshop".
"Coltsfoot". 1874 State Tretyakov Gallery. The drawing is reproduced in the technique of convex etching as an appendix to the magazine "Bee".
"Shishkin's Workshop". Fragment of the exposition.
"In the wild north..." 1890 Brown paper, sauce, charcoal. State Tretyakov Gallery.
"Debri". 1881 Canvas, oil. Acquired by P. M. Tretyakov. State Tretyakov Gallery.
"Three Oaks". 1887 Etched stroke, aquatint. State Tretyakov Gallery.
"Break". 1878 Etched stroke, aquatint. State Tretyakov Gallery.
"Shishkin's Workshop". Lithographic stone and samples of prints from it.
Cover of the album "Etchings by Shishkin". 1886 State Tretyakov Gallery.
"White flowers". 1877 From the collection of P. M. Tretyakov. State Tretyakov Gallery.
Ivan Shishkin was born in the city of Yelabuga on the banks of the Kama, grew up among the Volga landscapes, studied painting at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, then at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Having received in 1860 a large gold medal for the landscape “View on the island of Valaam. Cucco area”, the young painter was awarded a trip abroad as a pensioner of the Academy. And in 1862, Shishkin went to Europe - first to Germany, from there - to Switzerland, France, Holland and Belgium. In 1864 he settled in Düsseldorf.
In the 19th century, Düsseldorf was one of the main artistic centers in Germany. In 1819, the Academy was founded there, which was successively headed by the artists P. Cornelius and V. Shadov. One of the trends that developed in Düsseldorf was a realistic landscape, which attracted the young artist. The result of a short, but extremely important stay for Shishkin abroad was the grandiose and masterfully written “View in the vicinity of Dusseldorf”, which brought the artist the title of academician of the Russian Academy of Arts.
Returning to Russia, Shishkin quickly integrated into the artistic situation of his time, became close to the Artel of Artists, became one of the first members of the Association of the Wanderers, participated in its exhibitions, starting from the very first, in 1871. Shishkin showed her the painting “Pine Forest. Mast forest in the Vyatka province.
Almost simultaneously, he joins the Society of Russian aquafortists. Throughout his life, Shishkin has been drawing and engraving. He experiments a lot with etching, working on the same board several times, achieving the effect of a completely different mood in different prints. The graphic heritage of the artist is widely and almost for the first time so fully presented at the exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery.
By the 1870s, Shishkin had already arrived as a mature master. And ahead of him are his main, most famous masterpieces: Noon in the Outskirts of Moscow, Morning in a Pine Forest, Ship Grove. In Russia, he becomes close to many artists, sometimes becoming for them not just a friend, but also a teacher. I. N. Kramskoy wrote in one of his letters to P. M. Tretyakov: “... I affirm that Shishkin is a wonderful teacher. He is able to take 5, 6 young people, go with them to the village, go to sketches, i.e. work with them together. After all, that's all you need." Among the students and artists who were influenced by Shishkin are F. A. Vasiliev, A. N. Schilder, E. E. Volkov. One of the last students of the great landscape painter, already outside the walls of the Academy, was the first professional artist of Altai G. I. Gurkin (Choros-Gurke). It was with Gurkin that he studied on the eve of his death.
Ivan Ivanovich was not just a talented artist, but a great worker, he believed that labor was the main component of the artist's activity. In one of Shishkin's notebooks it is written: "A person can do a lot if he devotes himself to work in his chosen field, and will not do anything if he is going to do something great for a century - the more difficult, the more glorious the field." While working, sitting at the easel, on March 8 (20), 1898, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin died suddenly.
Many of Shishkin's ideas, including the idea of a close connection between the artist and the scientific discoveries and technologies of the era, migrated into the 20th century. Let us return to that section of the exhibition of I. I. Shishkin, which showed him not as a landscape painter - the author of paintings familiar to everyone, but as an artist closely associated with modernity.
An inquisitive and practical man, Shishkin enthusiastically studied the technical innovations of his time, and was especially interested in various ways of obtaining an image. In an effort to create better and cheaper reproductions of his works, he mastered the classic printing techniques - etching and lithography, improved them with author's techniques.
The artist began to engage in lithography while still at the Academy. Lithography (literally - "drawing on a stone") made it possible to reproduce drawings inexpensively and with high quality, conveying all the features of the original. Despite the fact that there are no Shishkin's lithographs in the exposition, samples of lithographic stones with impressions are presented in the didactic zone, which give an idea of this technique.
Shishkin-etcher is widely present in the main exhibition - both as separate sheets and works that the artist himself has combined into albums. In the didactic area, next to the original etchings by I. I. Shishkin from various albums stored in the library of the Tretyakov Gallery, the materials used to create the etching are shown (from the French eau-forte - literally “strong water”; this was the name for nitric acid, which was etched drawing on metal): tools, metal etching boards and samples of prints from them. Particularly interesting are the so-called different states of etchings, in which Shishkin's tireless work on the same landscape, the same board is visible, when, thanks to a few extra strokes, day turns into night, birds, stones, trees and other elements of the landscape appear and disappear.
In the didactic area of the exhibition, a sample of the so-called convex etching, an invention of Shishkin himself, is also shown. One of the founders of the Society of Russian Etchers and the father of the artist Konstantin Somov, A. I. Somov, wrote in the article “Shishkin as an engraver”: an ordinary printing press, and therefore would surpass etching in terms of cheapness and the abundance of equivalent prints obtained, Shishkin undertook a number of experiments in zincography, or, as it was called, convex etching ... "At the exhibition, this author's invention of Shishkin is represented by the sheet "Forest", reproduced in 1875 in the magazine "Bee".
However, the convex etching did not take root, as a new, more advanced method of reproduction based on the photoprocess appeared - phototype. I. I. Shishkin contributed to the dissemination of this technology in Russia. In 1884, the publisher A.I. Beggrov, specifically to demonstrate the reproduction possibilities of phototype, ordered Shishkin a series of easel charcoal drawings, published in the album “I. I. Shishkin. Charcoal drawings reproduced by the method of phototype ... ".
The artist was also engaged in photography itself. Back in the 1860s, while abroad as a pensioner of the Academy of Arts, he ordered photographs from his sketches and drawings and attached them to the reports sent to St. Petersburg. Since the 1870s, photography has taken an increasing place in the artist's work, he begins to take pictures himself. In the summer of 1874, I. N. Kramskoy complained in a letter to K. A. Savitsky that Shishkin was “busy with photography, studying, taking pictures, but not a single sketch or painting.”
A camera for a realist artist who seeks to accurately capture nature becomes no less important a piece of equipment than a sketchbook or sketchbook. In addition to the supporting role of photography, which was used by many artists of that time, Shishkin attached independent significance to this new art form not only as a way to reproduce his works, but also as a means of studying nature. The use of photographic technology has become an original feature of the pedagogical system of I. I. Shishkin.
“I want to give you a fundamental piece of advice, on which all the wisdom of studying nature or nature, as they say, is based, as well as the secrets of art and especially the technique of painting, is photography. She is the only mediator between nature and the artist and the strictest teacher, and if you reasonably understand this and study with energy what you feel weak in, then I vouch for your speedy success... learn to write and air, i.e. clouds, and trees on different planes, and distance, and water, in a word, everything you need. Here you can quietly study the perspective (aerial and linear) and the laws of solar lighting and so on. and so on. If you understand this and follow my advice, then you will quickly learn to write and draw, and most importantly, develop and ennoble your eye and so on ...
But in practice it is done like this: a good photograph is taken according to your taste or only a part of it that you need, and in order to see and understand well, you need to take a magnifying glass or a magnifying glass. From a photograph, in addition to drawing with a pencil, you need to write with paint, in one tone, in the same tone as the photograph. On the palette, make up the tone with a spatula, put the darkest one first; then halftones and so on until the lightest, and all these tones in heaps must be ready in advance on the palette (the contour must be outlined in ink or ink) ”(from a letter from I. I. Shishkin to I. A. Utkin, St. Petersburg, 1896).
The didactic area of the exhibition presents samples of photographic equipment from the second half of the 19th century from the Polytechnic Museum: a small camera for the pavilion and the road and a reproduction camera, which made it possible to convert the negative into a slide for the magic lantern. Such objects could well have been used by Shishkin.
The magic lantern is one of the most popular domestic leisure activities of the time. This is an optical device that projects an enlarged image onto a screen. I. I. Shishkin was the first to decide to adapt the projection of photography for teaching students. In 1897, returning after a break to official teaching at the Academy of Arts, he specifically stipulated the need for a magic lantern there with a screen on which the photograph would be drawn enlarged so that the landscape was presented almost in full size. At the exhibition, this role is played by a modern projector, hidden next to an authentic magic lantern of that era.
In the book of memoirs of N. A. Kiselyov, the son of landscape painter A. A. Kiselyov, “Among the Wanderers. Memoirs of the artist's son "is a curious evidence:" In winter, due to the impossibility of writing from nature, he (Shishkin. - ed.) forced his students to make drawings from transparencies projected onto a large canvas, made from his forest paintings and engravings. Some condemned such a pedagogical method, but those who knew how to patiently peer into his picturesque (oil) paintings of forest corners and feel the charm of an exceptionally talented wildlife, saturated to the limit with wonderful details, admired and learned a lot.
The artist A. T. Komarova recalled that Shishkin “advised the students who came to him that they learn from photography in the winter the lower technique of landscape and in the summer they studied only paints, not embarrassed by the interpretation of the matter of the subject and the very methods of painting; he was very pleased if anyone understood him and followed his advice; he was confident in the results of studying nature from photography, having checked it on himself, Kosmakov, Schilder, and others.
The essence of Shishkin's creative method was a deep study of nature. “I think that this is the only person in our country who knows the landscape in a scientific way,” I. N. Kramskoy wrote about him. The artist himself, in the preface to the catalog of the exhibition at the Imperial Academy of Arts of sketches, drawings, etchings, zincographs and lithographs, wrote: “In the matter of art - whether it be painting, architecture or another branch - practice is of great importance. It alone enables the artist to understand the mass of raw material that nature provides. Therefore, the study of nature is necessary for every artist, and especially for a landscape painter.
It is interesting to compare the “botanical” sketches, drawings and engravings of Shishkin presented at the exhibition - for example, “Snot-grass”, “Mother-and-stepmother” - with herbaria, illustrations in botanical books of the first half of the 19th century from the library of Moscow University and botanical photography of the second half a century. Obviously, the artist was interested in more complex problems than achieving botanical accuracy. As a great artist, Shishkin, observing nature, overcame the "dead accuracy of details." In this sense, photography, which the artist used very widely, was not for him a model that could be thoughtlessly copied. “Here, in part, the degree of a person’s talent is known: a mediocre one will slavishly copy all its unnecessary details from a photograph, and a person with flair will take what he needs,” Shishkin himself wrote to one of his students.
Despite Shishkin's interest in photography, nothing could replace nature for him. Curiosity towards nature prompted the artist to travel a lot. Spring was a time of long trips (the Volga region, the Karelian Isthmus, Olonets, Vologda and Tver provinces, Belarus, Narva), and in the summer he usually worked near St. and others. What these places looked like in the time of Shishkin can be imagined from old postcards exhibited in the windows of the didactic exposition along with geographical maps.
The development of railway communication in the second half of the 19th century made it easier to move around the country. The exposition includes a copy of the Map of Russian Railways compiled in 1862. Shishkin spent the summer of 1879 with his family and the artists Volkov and Schilder in the Crimea, where "they climbed to work in the mountain forests, wrote in the monastery of Kozma and Demyan, from Alupka on a cart, like gypsies, they moved to Gurzuf ...". In the library of the Tretyakov Gallery, there were old guides to the Crimea, containing descriptions of flora and fauna, maps, train schedules, and other manuals useful for the traveler of the late 19th century.
Some of Shishkin's travels can be called real geographical expeditions. So, in May 1890, the artist, together with the photographer Evgeny Petrovich Vishnyakov (1841-1916), undertook a journey to the sources of the Volga. Colonel, full member of the Russian Geographical Society and member of the photographic department of the Russian Technical Society, author of the book "The Application of Photography to Travel", Vishnyakov worked in the genre of photographic landscape. He accompanied Shishkin more than once on long trips and learned a lot from him. Shishkin participated in choosing the shooting point for his landscapes, gave advice when viewing pictures. The journey to the sources of the Volga was not at all easy: “The paucity of sketches from the upper reaches of the Volga was due to not quite favorable weather during the trip (it was cold), and especially extremely bad roads to travel to the upper reaches. It was necessary with great difficulty to move through swamps, swamps and mud with the almost complete desertion of this side ”(from the preface to the catalog of the exhibition at the Imperial Academy of Arts of studies, drawings, etchings, zincographs and lithographs by I. I. Shishkin in 1891). The memory of this expedition was preserved in the album of E. P. Vishnyakov “Sources of the Volga. Sketches with pen and photography”, published in 1893 with a cover drawn by Shishkin.
But the first experience of cooperation between the artist and the photographer belongs to a much earlier period. In 1869, Andrei Osipovich Karelin (1837-1906), a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, opened an atelier called "Photography and Painting" in Nizhny Novgorod. In the summer of 1870, I. I. Shishkin worked in Nizhny Novgorod, coloring photographic views of the city with watercolors commissioned by Karelin, who was commissioned by the Nizhny Novgorod nobility to compile an album to present to Alexander II. The exposition presents a sheet from the album of A. O. Karelin and I. I. Shishkin "Nizhny Novgorod", stored in the State Russian Museum. The participation of the artist in this forgotten project is all the more interesting because Karelin was one of the outstanding masters of photography in the second half of the 19th century. Artistic talent was combined in him with the talent of an inventor. With the help of additional optical lenses, he was the first to obtain a clear image in several plans on one negative. The photographs “Riding on the Black Pond”, “Lovers of Engravings” and “Girls with Albums” make it possible to appreciate the merits of his photographs in terms of conveying spatial depth and light-air effects.
The anniversary exhibition of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, thanks to the didactic zone in the exposition, allowed specialists to pose and partly comprehend the problem of the relationship between painting and photography in the 19th century, which to some extent changes the idea of how realism is connected with photography and other scientific and technical inventions of that era.
And the audience got the opportunity to see textbook paintings, printed graphics and reproductions in one space, in one context, to be a little closer to the audience of the era of positivism, which is characterized by a fascination with the optical effects of magnification, refraction, stereoscopy. You can see the world through the optics of the second half of the 19th century by looking into the eyepieces of a stereoscope, where a stereo pair (doubled image) creates the effect of a real volume, and by examining the landscape of I. I. Shishkin through the graphoscope lens. At the exhibition, one could also see the magical effect of light painting - an inverted reflection of nature, glowing on the frosted glass of a large camera.
There were no indifferent visitors among the visitors of the exhibition. Shishkin “is in love with all the originality of every tree, every bush, every grass, and like a loving son, cherishing every wrinkle on his mother’s face, he, with filial devotion, with all the severity of deep sincere love, conveys everything in this dear element of forests to him, everything to the last little things, with a truly classical skill, ”wrote art historian A.V. Prakhov. The love of the artist is transmitted to the audience.
