Sylvester Shchedrin, Russian artist: biography, creativity

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

Sylvester Shchedrin stood at the origins of the Russian romantic landscape. Despite the fact that his life was short, he left behind many beautiful works. The artist's most famous cycle is New Rome. Castle of the Holy Angel. Thanks to the works of Shchedrin, the landscape in Russia reaches a new level and begins to be quoted as an independent genre.

Youth in Russia

Sylvester Shchedrin was born on a frosty winter day in an old noble family. The artist's biography is mainly connected with Italy, here he created his best canvases. In Russia, only the youth of the painter passed. Despite the years spent abroad, the artist always felt like a Russian person and was keenly interested in the fate of his homeland. He was born in February 1791 in the family of the rector of the Academy of Arts, Feodosy Fedorovich Shchedrin. Uncle, Semyon Fedorovich, was a professor at the Academy and taught his class. Needless to say, with such gifted relatives, the boy's fate was sealed.

At the age of 9, Shchedrin became a student of the Academy. When it came time to choose a specialization, he was going to enroll in his uncle's class, specializing insentimental landscape. But Semyon Fedorovich suddenly dies, and the young man chooses Professor Mikhail Ivanov as his mentor.

1808 brought the student the first, small silver medal for drawing from life. The following year, he was awarded a small gold medal for his success in painting. And in 1812, Shchedrin graduated from the Academy with a large gold medal for the painting View from Petrovsky Island. Such an award gave the graduate the right to travel to Italy to get acquainted with the rich nature and masterpieces of classical art, the so-called "retirement". But because of the war with Napoleon, the trip had to be postponed. Only in 1818 did the artist finally manage to leave for Italy. He will not return to Russia.

Italy

At 27, Shchedrin ends up in Rome. At first, he settled with the poet Konstantin Batyushkov. After the strict cold Petersburg with eternal rains, the sunny Italian nature seemed to the artist an earthly paradise. He works exclusively from nature, which was a revolutionary move for that time. The artist does not just write, he enjoys the picturesque views of green valleys and the azure sea. He perfectly manages to convey the effects of lighting, atmosphere and air. Sylvester Shchedrin becomes a real singer of Italian nature. Not only Russians, but also sophisticated local collectors want to buy the artist's paintings.

After Rome, Shchedrin went to Naples. However, revolutionary unrest was brewing there and it was not safe to stay. Painter againsettled in Rome. In 1823 he created his most famous painting, New Rome. Castle of the Holy Angel. In the same year, the pension of the Academy of Arts expired, it was time to return to their homeland. But Shchedrin's work was such a success in Italy that he decided to stay here. Again the artist moves to Naples. He spends his winters in the city, and in the warm season he travels to small seaside towns, making sketches from nature.

It is not known if Shchedrin planned to return to Russia. From the correspondence it is clear that the fate of the motherland and domestic art greatly worried him, although he was in no hurry to leave Italy. One way or another, he was not destined to return. The artist was crippled by a serious illness, from which neither expensive treatment at resorts nor quack drugs helped. Sylvester Feodosievich Shchedrin died at the age of 39, in November 1830.

Creativity

The formation of the landscape as such, and romantic in particular, is associated in Russia with the names of Shchedrin and Aivazovsky. Before these masters, the image of nature was considered an elegant salon genre and did not have much weight. Preference was given to portraits and historical canvases. Nature was seen mainly as a backdrop for the placement of a model or military battles. The romantic landscape was preceded by a sentimental one, usually depicting peaceful pastorals or nostalgic views of country estates. Romanticism humanized nature, now it becomes a character in the picture, expresses the thoughts of the artist. Favorite plot of artists -romantics - the sea and the mountains. Shchedrin began within the framework of classicism, but quickly moved away from it. Its picturesque sunny valleys and moonlit sea views are in the romantic genre.

Many of the artist's works never made it to Russia, dispersing into private Italian collections. Not all of the painter's heritage is known and taken into account. In the St. Petersburg Russian Museum you can see "View of Amalfi near Naples", "View of the Colosseum in Rome", "Waterfall in Tivoli near Rome". In the Tretyakov Gallery there are Moonlit Night in Naples, Grotto Matromanio, Big Harbor on the Island of Capri, Small Harbor in Sorrento. Some works are kept in regional museums, such as "View of Naples from the Posilippo Road" or "The Grotto with a View of Vesuvius".

Castle of the Holy Angel

"Castle of the Holy Angel" (1823-1825) - Shchedrin's most famous plot. Strictly speaking, it was not a painting, but a whole cycle of eight canvases under a common title. The first work was such a resounding success that, by popular demand, Shchedrin made a few more repetitions, varying the illumination and the time of day. One of the works is in the Tretyakov Gallery.

On the canvas, the artist depicted the Tiber embankment not far from the house where he himself lived. The background is given to the "old" Rome. Here you can see the castle and the cathedral, lost in the air haze. In the foreground are old residential buildings, the embankment and fishing boats. Carefully painted figurines of poor fishermen give particular credibility to the work. The painting lives and breathes. Shchedrinemphasizes the contrasts: the luxurious Roman past and not the most ceremonial present coexist on the canvas.

Veranda covered with grapes

The motif of green pavilions and terraces was one of Shchedrin's favorite during the mature period of creativity. He himself called it "Pergolata". Pergola in Italian - a veranda or alley under a roof, covered with climbing greenery. In these paintings, the artist experimented with a plausible transmission of light and air space, achieving the liveliness of the canvas. The most famous painting on this subject is “Veranda entwined with grapes” (1828). Hot Italian afternoon. A group of people stopped to rest in the coolness of the terrace. We don't know if they are family or random fellow travelers. It can be seen that they are tired from the sweltering heat. People here are not just extras, each figure is expressive and not accidental. They are in unity with nature and complement it, without them the picture would look incomplete. The fertile shadow alternates with golden solar squares, in the background the sea turns blue. Looking at the picture, the viewer himself finds himself in this hot Italian summer.

Naples on a moonlit night

In the last period of his life, Sylvester Shchedrin became interested in seascapes with dramatic lighting. He painted several night scenes depicting the sea bathed in disturbing moonlight. One of them is in St. Petersburg, this is Naples on a Moonlit Night (1829). The picture can be roughly divided into three parts. To the right is a dark sea with silhouettes of boats. To the left are city buildings and a boat pier where fishermen warm themselves by the fire. crownsa picture of a romantic sky covered with clouds, where a night luminary peeps out in the gap between the clouds. On this canvas, the artist solves a difficult task: to combine cold moonlight and the warm flame of a blazing fire in one composition.

Researchers of Shchedrin's work say that his later works are significantly inferior to earlier sunny landscapes in harmony and integrity.