The most famous paintings by Shishkin. Artist ivan shishkin biography Artist shishkin ivan ivanovich short biography

"Forest hero-artist", "king of the forest" - this is how Ivan Shishkin was called by his contemporaries. He traveled a lot across Russia, glorifying 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, Vyatka province (on the territory of modern Tatarstan). The artist's father, Ivan Vasilievich, was a very respected person in the city: for several years in a row he was elected the mayor, built a wooden water supply system 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 sent him to the First Kazan Gymnasium. However, the young Shishkin was already interested in art more than in the exact sciences. In the gymnasium he was bored 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 an artist began to form, which he retained throughout his life.

Shishkin's mother, Daria Alexandrovna, was upset by her son's inability to study and household chores. She did not approve of his hobby for drawing and called this occupation "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 family and paint by candlelight at night.

For the first time, Shishkin thought seriously about the profession of an artist when Moscow painters came to 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 a second Karl Bryullov would one day grow out of his son.

"The image of everything that has life 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 Apollo Mokritsky. Then, in his still weak works, he dreamed of getting closer to nature as much as possible, and 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 paints such views that no one else had drawn before him: just a field, a forest, a river - and he has them come out as beautifully as the Swiss views." By the end of his studies, it became clear that the artist had an undeniable - and truly 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 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 tree trunks, 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, non-romanticized beauty of nature.

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

Ivan Shishkin. Pine tree 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 views of Valaam, and went abroad. He visited Munich, Zurich and Geneva, wrote a lot with a pen, first tried to engrave with "aqua regia". In 1864 the artist moved to Dusseldorf, where he began work on "View in the vicinity of Dusseldorf". This landscape, filled with air and light, earned 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 in the academy, who by that time had organized the St. Petersburg Artel of Artists (later - the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions). According to the recollections of Alexandra Komarova, the painter's niece, he himself was never a member of the artel, but he constantly visited his friends' creative Fridays and took an 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, he could not leave them for a long time, as he believed that something terrible would 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 Itinerants, becoming one of the founders of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. His friends were Konstantin Savitsky, Arkhip Kuindzhi and Ivan Kramskoy. They had a particularly warm relationship with Kramskoy. The artists traveled together across 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. Shishkina's talent was once again noted by the Academy, elevating him to the rank of professor for the painting "Wilderness".

"He [Shishkin] is still immeasurably higher than all, taken together, until now ... Shishkin is a milestone in the development of the Russian landscape, he is a man - 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, which made him withdrawn, his character - and his ability to work - began to deteriorate due to frequent binges. Due to constant quarrels, many relatives and friends stopped communicating with him. He was apparently saved by his habit of work: because of his pride, Shishkin could not afford to miss the place that he had already firmly occupied in artistic circles, and continued to paint pictures, which became more and more popular thanks to traveling exhibitions. It was during this period that "First Snow", "The 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, Kiev, 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 the work that allowed him to forget. He was attracted by the variability of the states of nature, he sought to catch and capture the elusive nature. He experimented with combinations of different brushes and strokes, honed 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" At the coast of the Gulf of Finland ". Contemporaries of Shishkin's paintings were amazed at how easily and freely he experimented, while achieving amazing realism.

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

At the end of the 19th century, a difficult period came for the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions - more and more generational disagreements arose among artists. Shishkin, on the other hand, was attentive to the young authors, because he tried to bring something new into his work and understood that the cessation of development meant decline even for the eminent master.

“In artistic activity, in the study of nature, one can never put an end to it, one cannot say that he has learned it completely, thoroughly, and that there is no need to learn more; what has been studied well only for the time being, and after the impressions pale, and, not constantly coping with nature, the artist himself will not notice how he will get away from the truth. "

Ivan Shishkin

In March 1898, Shishkin died. He died at his 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.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is rightfully considered a great landscape painter. He, like no one else, managed to convey through his canvases the beauty of the pristine forest, the endless expanses of the fields, the cold of the harsh land. When looking at his paintings, one often gets the impression that a breeze is about to blow or a crackling of branches is heard. Painting so occupied all the artist's thoughts that he even died with a brush in his hand, sitting at an easel.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was born in the small provincial town of Elabuga, located on the banks of the Kama. As a child, the future artist could wander through the forest for hours, admiring the beauty of pristine nature. In addition, the boy painstakingly painted the walls and doors of the house, surprising those around him. In the end, the future artist in 1852 enters the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture. There, teachers help Shishkin recognize exactly the direction in painting that he will follow throughout his life.

Landscapes became the basis of Ivan Shishkin's work. The artist skillfully conveyed the species of trees, grasses, boulders overgrown with moss, uneven soil. His paintings looked so realistic that it seemed that the sound of a stream or the rustle of leaves was about to be heard somewhere.

Without a doubt, one of the most popular paintings by Ivan Shishkin is "Morning in a pine forest"... The painting depicts more than just a pine forest. The presence of bears seems to indicate that somewhere far away, in the wilderness, there is a unique life.

Unlike his other canvases, this artist did not paint alone. Bears belong to the brush of Konstantin Savitsky. Ivan Shishkin judged in fairness, and both artists signed the picture. However, when the finished canvas was brought to the buyer Pavel Tretyakov, he became angry and ordered to erase Savitsky's name, explaining that he ordered the painting only to Shishkin, and not to two artists.

The first meetings with Shishkin caused mixed feelings among those around him. He seemed to them a sullen and taciturn person. At the school he was even called a monk behind his back. In fact, the artist revealed himself only in the company of his friends. There he could argue and joke.

Artist Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin The greatest landscape painter, an amazing master of painting forest landscapes, and to this day he remains the undisputed leader in Russian landscape painting in creating an incredible number of canvases with forest views. A real connoisseur of forest vegetation, colorful forms of tree trunks, velvety foliage, forest glades with bright grass illuminated by the sun's rays through the trees, picturesque hemp overgrown with moss and surrounded by various mushrooms. The artist Shishkin, like no one else, saw in the nature of the forest all the hidden beauty in wild overgrown places where a person's foot rarely set foot.

For the first time in Russian fine arts, the artist was able to masterfully show all this unprecedented beauty in his works.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin - biography. The artist Shishkin was born in 1832 in a small town on the banks of the Kama River in Yelabuga, in the Vyatka province, into the family of a poor merchant. At the age of 12, he was accepted to study at the first Kazan gymnasium.

Studying at the gymnasium did not last long, feeling his vocation for the fine arts, Ivan Shishkin did not finish his studies at the gymnasium until grade 5, left it and entered Moscow to study in 1852 at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. After studying there until 1856, the young artist is admitted to the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, learning the necessary skills from Professor S.M. Vorobiev.

Of course, at the academy, Shishkin did not really like educational topics and the young artist in his free time was content with writing life sketches in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, sometimes he went to write sketches on the island of Valaam. All this greatly helped Shishkin to develop the abilities of a young master, learning in pencil drawings the shapes of tree branches, bushes with foliage, which were later reproduced in sketches.

For pencil drawings in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, he was awarded two small silver medals, and later, in 1859, Ivan Shishkin deservedly received a small gold medal for a beautiful landscape in the vicinity of St. Petersburg. Inspired by his successes, Shishkin persisted in a lot of work, revealing great knowledge in himself, fascinated by places on Valaam and Cucco, he created works for which in 1860 he was already awarded a large gold medal and deserved a pensioner's trip abroad.

In 1862, Shishkin went abroad for the first time, having visited Munich, Zurich, Geneva and Dusseldorf, where he painted a picture In the outskirts of Dusseldorf, later for this work Shishkin was awarded the honorary title of academician.

Also abroad, he skillfully draws drawings with a pen and deserves a lot of attention from foreigners, who were very surprised and shocked by the unprecedented talent of the draftsman Shishkin. Some of these drawings were placed in the Dusseldorf Museum on a par with the works of famous European artists. But Shishkin yearned for his homeland and Russian places, he understood that it was impossible to paint the Russian landscape abroad, and in 1865 he returned to Russia.

In Russia, the artist again joins art circles, attends exhibitions and artists' artels. He works closely with drawings and sketches, creates by 1867 a gorgeous work painting The felling of the forest, Shishkin accurately noticing the features of the Russian landscape creates a number of works in 1869 painting At sunset, living in the Bratsevo estate, he creates a beautiful summer landscape Midday. Environs of Moscow.

1870 Ivan Shishkin joins the Wanderers' artel under the leadership of I. Kramskoy. becoming for life one of the founders of traveling exhibitions of artists who did not agree with the academic foundations of that time.

Shishkin, faithful to his work, continues to engage in creativity, creating new canvases and exhibits new paintings at a traveling exhibition: Evening, Pine Forest, Birch Forest and a picture of the Wilderness very well appreciated by his contemporaries, A.V. Prakhov wrote many positive reviews for this painting.For this work, Ivan Shishkin is awarded the honorary title of professor in landscape painting. in 1878, the master again shocks everyone with his new landscape, Rye, at the 6th traveling exhibition. The work had a lot of positive reviews.

In 1877, Ivan Shishkin married the artist Olga Antonova Lagoda, their beautiful house is very much visited by his colleagues and friends, where there were feasts and parties.

In 1883 Shishkin painted a picture with a large and gorgeous oak tree in the valley, the picture was named Among the flat valley.

In 1884, a very airy landscape with a vast panorama was named by the artist Lesnye Dali.

1887 painting Oak Grove in which Shishkin masterfully conveys the state of mighty oak trees with thick wriggling boughs, dynamic shadows and gentle rays of the sun.

In 1889, Ivan Shishkin creates one of his brightest canvases, this painting

Morning in a pine forest, the picture is saturated with morning forest air, there is a feeling of virgin forest wilderness, the picture is popular to this day and probably this Shishkin masterpiece has no equal.

In the 90s, the artist creates a number of paintings, some of them, beautifully rendered wilderness of the forest in the vicinity of Oranienbaum In the forest of Countess Mordvinova. Peterhof.

Accurately conveyed the state of rainy weather in the picture Rain in an oak forest, according to the poem by M. Lermontov, Shishkin creates an unusual picture In the wild north by order of P.P. Konchalovsky, a lonely snow-covered pine tree stands towering against the background of a moonlit night.

In 1898, the artist writes his new work Ship Grove, one might say this is the final work of the master, which demonstrates all the talent and skill of the great artist accumulated in life. Shishkin, like his colleague Kramskoy, died as an artist, right behind the easel while painting his new next picture, it happened in March 1898, he left his very rich heritage to his descendants.

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Many of his paintings gained immense popularity not only of contemporaries, these paintings are known today to a large circle of admirers of his works. No one before Shishkin with such overwhelming frankness told the viewer about his love for his native Russian nature.

The works of I.I.Shishkin became classics of the national Russian landscape painting and gained immense popularity. Today, images of his landscapes can be seen in many places on various reproductions, gift wrapping, souvenir boxes and even sweets with famous bears, all this speaks of the great love of the people for his great work.

Many landscape painters learn from Shishkin's paintings, many people are always fascinated by his works. Every child knows reproductions of his famous landscapes. Of course, the case is not complete without critics and some critical contemporary artists who clearly rest against the artist's photorealism, but this is all from the evil one or comes from ignorance of the great master's work and not being able to create something close to the same.

How truly great are the artists, whose inescapable supply of spiritual strength and life observations is poured into a form that is extremely clear, simple, accessible to the widest viewer. The whole philosophy of their canvases is a hymn to wildlife, to the beauty of nature. Their work is reminiscent of a leisurely song, epic and free. The best canvases of artists become milestones in the development of art in the country in which they lived and painted. Compatriots are proud of their paintings as national treasures, so great is the generalized sense of citizenship and the feeling of the Motherland in these realistic works.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Russian national landscape was unconditionally established. That is why Shishkin's work marks an important stage in the development of this genre. Among outstanding artists Shishkin Ivan Ivanovich(1832-1896) presents with his art an exceptional phenomenon, which was not known in the field of landscape painting in previous eras. Like many Russian artists, he naturally possessed a tremendous talent for a nugget. Nemirovich-Danchenko spoke about his work in the following way: "A poet of nature, precisely a poet who thinks in its images, examines its beauty where a mere mortal passes indifferently." Shishkin's creativity imbued with the pathos of life and the assertion of the beauty and power of nature of his native country.

The future artist was born in Elabuga on the Kama - a remote Russian province. The inhabitants of this town carefully preserved the fundamental foundations of the patriarchal order. His father was a merchant, cultured person. His father was the first from whom Vanya found support in his aspirations for art. In 1852, a young Shishkin enters the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Then four years of study at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Already during this period, Shishkin introduced an innovation to the landscape genre - an etude approach to the subject of an image, natural exploration of nature. One of the works of the academic period "VIEW ON THE ISLAND OF VALAAME" (Cucco area) (1858, Kiev Museum of Russian Art). The future artist admired meadows and forests, herbs and flowers, stumps and stones, shrubs and mosses, in which the idea of ​​living life, eternal growth of nature was manifested. Shishkin was attracted by the thirst for artistic exploration of nature. He carefully examined, probed, studied every stem, trunk of a tree, quivering foliage on branches, risen grasses and mosses. For this picture, Shishkin received a large gold medal and the right to improve his work abroad after graduating from the Academy.

For two years, the artist was gaining knowledge in Switzerland, in Germany. From where he returned as a high professional, he became a professor (head of the landscape class) and a member of the Association of the Itinerants. Here he nurtured his view of creativity and determined the theme of future works. Living in a foreign land sharpened his sense of homeland.

Another painting by the artist "SESTRORETSKY BOR" (1887) is opposite in plot. It is not a thicket here, but sunlight shining through the pine trees and warming the earth. And again the main characters in Shishkin's landscapes are trees. In the spirit of his time, the artist poeticizes them, naming them according to the initial lines of the poem: "Among the flat valley ...", "In the wild north ...".

"AMONG THE VALLEY OF Smooth ..." (1883, Kiev Museum of Russian Art) - romantic painting, which became a continuation of the majestic landscape, created based on the poem of the same name by Alexei Merzlyakov. The artist has developed a visually convincing picture, filled with the smells of the plain and the coolness of a dying day. Shishkin has been painting a forest all his life, and here is a single tree for the whole boundless space. The picture is addressed to the well-being of a person in a boundless world. Shishkin's man is tied to the ground. Nature expresses the music of the human soul. Through her states, a person reflects on life. Thus, the artist's landscape expresses the state of nature and the feelings of a person responding to this state. It is very difficult to say which of the artist's works is the most remarkable. All of Shishkin's works show how his creative tasks expanded, and how a true landscape painter wanted to express the best national ideals and aspirations in the images of Russian nature.

V Shishkin's paintings as if the "spirit and image of the great, mighty space" called Russia sounds. An epoch lives in the artist's images, a mighty unhurried people is imagined, a huge endless country is seen, which has no end and which everything is moving away and receding into endless horizons. Shishkin conquered the widest circles of society with his works. After all, he created a real epic of the Russian forest, capturing not only the appearance of national nature, but also the character of the people. It was from Shishkin's love for nature that images were born that have long become a kind of symbols of Russia. Already the very figure of Shishkin personified Russian nature for his contemporaries. He was called "forest hero-artist", "king of the forest", "old forest man", he was compared to an old strong pine, but he is most likely like a lonely oak from his famous painting. After all, the artist had a difficult fate. Twice he married for love, and twice death carried away his beloved women. His sons have died. But Shishkin never allowed himself to transfer his own grave condition to nature.

Shishkin died on March 20, 1898, as a true artist - at work. His pupil Grigory Gurkin worked in Shishkin's workshop. Hearing an unnaturally loud sigh, he looked out from behind the canvas and saw the teacher slowly sliding onto his side. This is how his niece describes the death of Ivan Ivanovich. But the work of the master is alive, in which "the spirit and image of the great, mighty space" called Russia sounds.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898) - Russian landscape painter, painter, draftsman and engraver-aquafortist. Representative of the Dusseldorf Art School, Academician (1865), Professor (1873), Head of the Landscape Workshop (1894-1895) of the Academy of Arts. Founding member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.

Biography of Ivan Shishkin

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is a famous Russian painter (landscape painter, painter, printmaker) and academician.

Ivan was born in the city of Elabuga in 1832 in a merchant family. The artist received his first education at the Kazan gymnasium. After studying there for four years, Shishkin entered one of the Moscow painting schools.

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

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

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

Works of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin

Early creativity

For the early works of the master ("View on the island of Valaam", 1858, Kiev Museum of Russian Art; "Cutting the forest", 1867, Tretyakov Gallery) is characterized by some fragmentation of forms; adhering to the "backstage" construction of the picture, traditional for romanticism, clearly marking out plans, he still does not achieve a convincing unity of the image.

In such films as “Noon. In the vicinity of Moscow "(1869, ibid.), This unity appears already an obvious reality, primarily due to the subtle compositional and light-air-coloristic coordination of the zones of heaven and earth, soil (the latter equal in Russian landscape art).

Maturity

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

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

Ivan Shishkin is a remarkable poet not only of soil, but also of a tree, with a keen sense of the character of each species [in his most typical notes, he usually mentions not just “forest”, but a forest of “poplar, elms and partly oaks” (diary of 1861) or “Spruce, pine, aspen, birch, linden forest” (from a letter to IV Volkovsky, 1888)].

Rye Pine Forest Among the flat valley

With special eagerness, the artist paints the most powerful and strongest types of oaks and pines - at the stage of maturity, old age and, finally, death in a windbreak. Classical works of Ivan Ivanovich - such as "Rye" or "Among the flat valley ..." (the picture is named after the song of A.F. Merzlyakov; 1883, Kiev Museum of Russian Art), "Forest Dales" (1884, Tretyakov Gallery) - are perceived as generalized, epic images of Russia.

The artist Ivan Shishkin is equally successful in distant views and forest "interiors" ("Pines, illuminated by the sun", 1886; "Morning in a pine forest" where bears were painted by K. A. Savitsky, 1889; both - in the same place). His drawings and sketches, which are a detailed diary of natural life, are of independent value.

Interesting facts from the life of Ivan Shishkin

Shishkin and bears

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

An interesting fact is that for the image of the bears, Shishkin attracted the famous animal painter Konstantin Savitsky, who coped with the task perfectly. Shishkin quite fairly appreciated the contribution of the companion, so he asked him to put his signature on the painting 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.

Seeing the signatures, Tretyakov was indignant: they say, he ordered the painting to Shishkin, and not 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.

Under the influence of a priest

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

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

Tell me as an artist to an artist ...

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

- A camera is a mechanical device that simply captures a forest or field at a given time under a given lighting. Photography is soulless. And in every brushstroke of the artist there is a feeling that he feels for the surrounding nature.

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

- Shishkin knew nature like no one else, - the writer shares. - He perfectly knew the life of plants, to some extent he was even a botanist. Once Ivan Ivanovich came to Repin's studio and, examining his new painting, which depicted rafts on the river, asked what kind of tree they were. "Who cares?!" - Repin was surprised. And then Shishkin began to explain that the difference is great: if you build a raft from one tree, the logs can swell, if they go to the bottom from another, but from the third, you get a good floating craft! His knowledge of nature was phenomenal!

You don't have to be hungry

“An artist must be hungry,” says a well-known aphorism.

- Indeed, the conviction that an artist should be far from everything material and engage exclusively in creativity, is firmly entrenched in our minds, says Lev Anisov. - For example, Alexander Ivanov, who wrote The Appearance of Christ to the People, was so carried away by his work that sometimes he drew water from the fountain and was content with a crust of bread! But nevertheless, this condition is far from necessary, and it certainly did not apply to Shishkin.

Creating his masterpieces, Ivan Ivanovich, nevertheless, lived a full life and did not experience great material difficulties. He was married twice, loved and appreciated comfort. And he was loved and appreciated by beautiful women. And this despite the fact that on people who did not know him well, the artist made the impression of an extremely withdrawn and even sullen subject (at the school for this reason he was even nicknamed "monk").

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

Glory overtook very early

Russian - yes, however, not only Russian! - history knows many examples when great artists, writers, composers received recognition from the general public only after their death. In the case of Shishkin, everything was different.

By the time he graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Shishkin was well known abroad, and when the young artist studied in Germany, his works were already well sold and bought! There is a known case when the owner of a Munich shop for no money agreed to part with several of Shishkin's drawings and etchings that adorned his shop. Fame and recognition came to the landscape painter very early.

Noon artist

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

In any hut - a reproduction of Shishkin

Living not far from the painter's native places, we, of course, believe (or hope!) That he reflected them in his canvases. However, our interlocutor hastened to disappoint. The geography of Shishkin's works is extremely wide. While studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, he painted Moscow landscapes - he visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, worked a lot in the Losinoostrovsky forest, Sokolniki. While living in St. Petersburg, he traveled to Valaam, to Sestroretsk. Having become a venerable artist, he visited Belarus - he painted in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. Shishkin also worked abroad.

However, in the last years of his life, Ivan Ivanovich often visited Yelabuga and also wrote local motives. By the way, one of his most famous, textbook landscapes - "Rye" - was painted just somewhere not far from his native place.

“He saw nature through the eyes of his people and was loved by the people,” says Lev Mikhailovich. - In any village house in a conspicuous place it was possible to find a reproduction of his works "Among the flat valley ...", "In the wild north ...", "Morning in a pine forest", torn from a magazine.

Bibliography

• F. Bulgakov, “Album of Russian Painting. Pictures and drawings of I. I. Sh. " (SPb., 1892);
• A. Palchikov, "List of printed sheets of I. I. Sh." (SPb., 1885)
• D. Rovinsky, "A detailed dictionary of Russian engravers of the XVI-XIX centuries." (vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1885).
• I.I.Shishkin. "Correspondence. Diary. Contemporaries about the artist ”. L., Art, 1984 .-- 478 p., 20 p. ill., portrait. - 50,000 copies.
• V. Manin Ivan Shishkin. Moscow: White City, 2008, p. 47 ISBN 5-7793-1060-2
• I. Shuvalov. Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. SPb .: Artists of Russia, 1993
• F. Maltsev. Masters of Russian Landscape: Second Half of the 19th Century. Moscow: Art, 1999

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