Each of us is at least superficially familiar with the work of the great Russian painter of the 19th century Ivan Shishkin. In Soviet times, the owners liked to decorate the walls of their homes with reproductions of paintings by the artist, torn from magazines.
In addition, few people remember the amazing sweets, the wrapper of which was decorated with legendary cubs in a pine forest.
People who are more or less versed in painting know that Shishkin is a huge value in the history of not only Russian, but also the world of fine art.
His incredible ability to sing the beauty of nature amazes all landscape admirers, and the master’s ability to masterfully transmit the subtle states of nature on his canvases delight art connoisseurs around the world.
Introducing 10 Shishkin's most famous paintings with photos of original works, titles and description.
10. From the vicinity of Gurzuf
Sunny Crimea always attracted painters - they came there in pursuit of fresh artistic sensations, for new colors.
On the peninsula, nature literally splashes in contrasts: it is sharp and vague, not flamboyant and multicolored, monumental and minimalistic.
Shishkin also succumbed to the general temptation and at the end of the 1870s went to work in the Crimea.
The landscape “From the surroundings of Gurzuf” the artist showed in 1880 at his personal exhibition. Then, such expositions were widely popular, and this one became an event in the world of art.
9. Forest distances
The painting was painted in 1884. Shishkin’s works of this period are particularly deep and amazingly powerful..
Long, booming songs fly over endless expanses. A leisurely alternation of plans, the mighty shoulders of the Russian free will - this is the main theme of this canvas.
Here Shishkin is especially vividly showing his overwhelming love for his native land and its endless beauties.
Painted as if from a bird's eye view, the picture is original in its compositional key. In the optical center you can see a small pond, which to some extent symbolizes the radiance of nature, saturated with the sun.
It becomes clear to the viewer that the specular, brilliant expanse of water reflects the beautiful summer sky, but this catchy glare of light, combined with overflows of light on the crowns of trees, fills the medium of the picture with some kind of fairy-tale aura.
The epic scale of the work is given not only by its format, but also by incredibly meticulously written details, which lead to philosophical reflection.
8. A stream in a birch forest
The canvas depicts incredible beauty birch forest. Mast-like birch trees reaching the very sky, which fascinate with their royal grandeur and tranquility. Wherever you look, everywhere we see birches.
Moreover, each image is not only as detailed as a landscape genius, but it is individual in nature. Each tree here has its own unique character and features that are different from other features.
7. Village courtyard
Shishkin created this canvas in the late 60s of the XIX century. Here the viewer is presented with a picture of the village courtyard of the peasants of that time.
In the right corner, the master depicts the corner of a log house. Shishkin, with detailed photographer, conveys the structure of a typical village hut.
The dynamics of the composition takes us to a small opening visible in the vicinity with the gates closed. Thus, Shishkin shows us a piece of an endless Russian field.
One of the main goals of creating this landscape was depiction of the decay of peasant life. It can be noted that the artist did not write a single figure of livestock. It seems that the owners just left their home.
6. Apiary
Shishkin throughout his career tried not only to get to know nature as deeply as possible, but to explore the nature of the relationship of a person with her.
The world-famous painting “Apiary in the Forest” shows us the dedication of the master of painting on this topic.
A farmer collecting honey in an apiary is a great idea to once again display the communication of ordinary people with nature.
The painting reflects the painter’s deep understanding of the subtlest processes that take place in the life of an ordinary peasant, who is firmly and firmly connected with the forest and the field that feeds him.
5. Rye
In this famous canvas, Shishkin combined the two main colors of the domestic school of painting: blue and gold. Such a gamut was often used in icon painting. From this we can conclude that in this work the artist puts the Russian landscape on a par with the divine nature.
You should also pay attention to the symbolic meaning of pines, which embody endurance, life force and inflexibility. The trees in this picture are such epic heroes protecting the rye field.
A dried tree looks like a dissonance in their general ensemble. Most likely, Shishkin so wanted to indicate his difficult state of mind in which he was working on the creation of the canvas, because shortly before the creation of the painting, the artist lost his dear people (father, wife and two children).
4. Harvest
This is one of the master’s early works, showing the viewer the immense expanse of boundless Russian lands rich in bread, which so admired the aspiring painter.
Shishkin s painstakingly writes out spikelets. The sunny sky, adorned with many clouds, contrasts with the gold of the field and the nearby settlement, where, as expected, the temple is the tallest structure.
3. View in the vicinity of Dusseldorf
This picture is literally saturated with light and air. Looking at it you can clearly feel this living nature, its magic and reality.
It can be clearly seen that Shishkin was very close to this simple and discreet beauty of the expanses of Dusseldorfas if hiding a secret.
The painter painstakingly writes out all the details of the picture. The right side of the canvas gives a full sense of impending thunderstorm. Here Shishkin depicts a gloomy cloud obscuring the sun's rays.
The master masterfully plays with a contrast of tone saturation, conveying weather changes on canvas with amazing accuracy.
However, his thunderstorm is not threatening in nature - in this composition he is also a symbol of the joy of life. This, in particular, is indicated by human figures - people have no intention at all of running away from an approaching thunderstorm, they accept it, feeling themselves to be part of a vast multifaceted world.
2. Herd under the trees
From 1862 to 1865, Shishkin was in Europe, where he studied technique of Western masters of painting.
During this period, he worked most of all in Germany and Switzerland, where the artists of the Dusseldorf school made a strong impression on him. He adopted the experience of combining landscape with animal images from them. The famous painting “A herd under the trees” was painted just at that time.
1. Morning in a pine forest
This is probably the most famous painting belonging to the brush of the great master. The painting is very popular due to the compositional inclusion in the landscape of the details of the animalistic plot.
“Morning in a pine forest” accurately reflects the state of nature that the painter saw on the island of Gorodomlya. It depicts not a gloomy dense forest, but the rays of the sun, briskly breaking through the branches of centuries-old trees.
Looking at this canvas, you can feel how morning is coming.
Interesting fact. There is a version that the idea of the painting belongs to the artist Savitsky, who eventually acted as a co-author of a work of art and painted bear cubs, naturally, based on Shishkin's sketches.