Each painting by Shishkin is an exact reproduction of the beauty of nature

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The famous Russian landscape painter Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin left behind several hundred paintings glorifying the beauty of Russian nature. The choice of theme was greatly influenced by the area where he grew up. This is the Vyatka province, the city of Yelabuga and its environs - the floodplain of the Kama River, its steep banks, forest streams cutting through the dense thickets of ship forests, lakes, sunny lawns … All this gave rise to inspiration and a desire to capture divine beauty on canvas.

Favorite stories

Birch, oak, pine are the artist's favorite trees. Even leaving Russia, he wandered around the outskirts of Dusseldorf, Munich, Zurich and looked for similar views. When he came to Finland to visit his eldest daughter Lydia, Ivan Ivanovich continued to paint landscapes, because the nature of these places is very similar to Russian.

If you carefully examine the paintings of Ivan Shishkin, you can find on them often repeated landscapes with pine trees. The majestic Kama beauties won the heart of Ivan Ivanovich as a child.

Pine trees lit by the sun

Shishkin's painting "Pine trees illuminated by the sun", written in 1886year, introduces us to the beauty of the Russian forest: two slender, strong trees, one of those that go to ship masts; fluffy crowns create a pleasant cool shade; elastic soil, strewn with a thick layer of needles, muffles all noises. Only the singing of birds and the rustle of branches from gusts of wind break the silence of a summer day. The resinous smell slightly excites, a light breeze invigorates. It is easy for the viewer to imagine himself in this place. Pay attention to how the bark, branches, needles are written out. You might think that you have a photograph in front of you. Some of our contemporaries consider this a big disadvantage. We must not forget that in the time of Shishkin, degerrotype had not yet been invented. Reliability, scrupulousness in the image was valued higher than blurry strokes. The era of photography and impressionism was ahead.

Ivan Shishkin is a master of small details. He deliberately does not give his plots a psychological focus. He writes how he breathes, how he lives. He doesn't teach anyone. A series of heavy losses that befell the artist in the prime of his life taught him patience, acceptance of his fate as a cross laid by the Lord. What associations does this picture of Shishkin evoke? Sunlit Pines are a pair of beautiful, strong, he althy trees. Under their shade it is nice to hide from the scorching rays of the midday sun. Little bear cubs could frolic here, as in “Morning in a Pine Forest”, or tired mushroom pickers could rest. Sadness emanates from the landscape. Only two pine trees and an empty space nearby. By the time the canvas was painted, the artist had already been widowed twice and no longer hoped foropportunity to live in a happy family nest.

Two pine trees are like two different people

Ivan Ivanovich rightly considered it unnecessary to load pictures of nature with psychologism. Nevertheless, it turned out that each painting by Shishkin is an autobiography of the artist, a projection of his personal life, the pain and joy of his soul. Compare - "Pine on the Rock", written in 1855, then the artist was 23 years old, and "In the Wild North", written in 1891.

He is almost 70 years old. He is twice a widower and has buried his sons. What can you expect from life? How piercingly lonely and restless the Valaam pine looks (Shishkin's painting “In the Wild North”). Compare it with the earlier work Pine in the Sand from 1884.

That year Ivan Ivanovich turned 52 years old. In his works (the canvases "Pine on the Sand" and "Before the Thunderstorm") one feels the hope for change, for the opportunity to start a new life. Look, a pine tree on the sand seems to be climbing a dune. Sandy hills look more like a shield from the cold winds of the B altic than obstacles. Yet the ground is fragile. There is no previous self-confidence. Doubts have arisen, although hope is not yet lost.

Before the Storm

Ivan Ivanovich works hard. Labor does not break and fall. The artist pays especially great attention to small details, draws every blade of grass, every leaf. Shishkin's painting "Before the Thunderstorm" was written just in those years. Please note that the right side is noticeably more loaded. Narrow but clear pathmakes a decisive turn to the right, towards the future. Still water is not the place to linger. Despondency is a grave sin. As long as we live, we must move forward! Fresh and bright shades of green on the right side and yellowish, slightly withered grass on the left. A large bush is not an obstacle. It's like a screen behind which a new life. What is she like?

The last painting by Shishkin

Pine forests in the Vyatka province, with hundred-year-old trees half a meter in diameter and up to forty meters high, were also called ship or mast forests. Straight, strong and light barrels were taken to shipyards and used in shipbuilding.

It is no coincidence that Shishkin's last painting is Ship Grove (1898). The exhibition was held in February-March of the same year, and Ivan Ivanovich presented his new work there. Shishkin's last painting is also known under the name "Afonasof ship grove near Yelabuga". She caused a lot of enthusiasm, and on March 8, a wonderful artist died. Death caught him at the easel, with a brush in his hand, creating a new landscape…