Ivan Shishkin's masterpieces: The most famous paintings of the great Russian landscape painter

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

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 aroused mixed feelings among those around him. He seemed to them a sullen and taciturn person. In 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.

Death overtook the artist at his easel. Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin died on March 20, 1898 with a brush in his hands.

Ivan Shishkin's contribution to the development of landscape painting is invaluable. But contemporary artists also have the right to express themselves. Chinese artist Liu Maoshan creates stunning watercolor landscapesdepicting nature and the city at different times of the year and day.