Description of one masterpiece: Shishkin's painting "Rye"

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

I. I. Shishkin is one of the best representatives of the Russian school of painting, a master of realistic landscapes. As his contemporaries, fellow artists and critics, noted, the artist subtly felt the psychology, the nature of nature and was able to convey and express them surprisingly accurately in his work. The wonderful canvas "Rye" is a vivid confirmation of this.

Rye, rye, field road…

Shishkin's painting "Rye" is a classic reflection of the Russian national chronotope. What does he represent? Smooth fields or steppes and a road that goes into the distance. The space is expanded, it is not limited by mountains or any buildings. And above it - the same wide, endless sky, whitish-bluish, with clouds floating thoughtfully. And as connecting both elements - earth and air - links-trees, lifting up their crowns. This is exactly what Shishkin's painting "Rye" looks like. It was written in 1878, after another trip to his native Yelabuga. The audience saw the canvas at the 6th exhibition of the Wanderers - and wereconquered by his uncomplicated majestic beauty and sincerity. What did they see? A narrow, grassy road leading from the viewer forward, laid by peasant carts between a golden rye field. The field is earing on the right and left sides, low, dense, it seems that you can hear the rustle of ears under the breeze.

Description of the painting

This is how Shishkin's painting "Rye" looks in the foreground. In addition to the field, the spectators seem to be surrounded, enveloping the sky from all sides. It seems that it lets you in: step through the frame, find yourself inside the canvas - and you will be inside it too. Field and sky stretch as far as the eye can see and hide behind the horizon. And on both sides of the field, along its edge, lone tall pine trees rise. And this is no coincidence. Although Shishkin's painting was called "Rye", the artist could not resist drawing his favorite tree. It is rightfully considered a symbol of all his work. The pines are tall, with whitish, slightly curved trunks. Their branches are lowered down and resemble a luxurious natural tent. Trees, like mighty warriors-sentinels, stand guard over the ripening crop. Ivan Shishkin wrote his Rye, sincerely admired not only by the scope of Russian fields, their clean, fresh breath, but also by the majesty and pride of prickly giants.

The mood of the painting

Examining the artistic canvas, imbued with its charm, one cannot but pay attention to the special state of pre-storm in which nature is. She's likefroze in anticipation, in anticipation of the revelry of the elements, as capricious and uncontrollable, boundless as the Russian spirit. This, perhaps, is the whole Shishkin! “Rye” (the description of the picture helps to understand this) is a canvas-mood, a canvas-feeling. The author notices how single gusts of wind run through the ears, how the tops of pines sway, how their huge paws nod from side to side. The image is saturated with hidden expression, expressive and dynamic. Swallows flying low above the ground give a special revival to the canvas. They trace the air with arrows, emphasizing nature's anxious expectation of a cleansing thunderstorm. The country road winds its way forward. In the background, the silhouettes of single trees rise. A jagged strip of forest can be seen in the distance. The sky is also darker there, the clouds thickened in a dense mass. And in the center of the picture they are lighter, with a slight pinkish tint. What does the viewer feel when he stops in front of Shishkin's work, contemplating it? Probably, an irresistible desire to be there, in this hot midday land, turn your face to the sun, inhale the fragrant warm air from the heart and feel like a part of this magnificent, eternal nature.

Such is she, the life-giving force of true art!