Ivan Shishkin /Ива́н Ши́шкин | Landscape painter

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, (1832-1898), one of the most popular landscape painters of Russia. His paintings of wooded landscapes led his contemporaries to call him "tsar of the woods".

Shishkin was the son of a merchant.

He studied art with a characteristic thoroughness, first at the School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Moscow (1852-56) and then at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1856-60).

In 1860 he was awarded the Academy’s Gold Medal and granted a stipend to travel to Munich, Prague, and Düsseldorf, Ger., to add final lustre to his art education.

It was mainly the Düsseldorf school that furthered his inclination toward exact reproduction of nature and linear severity.

His ink drawings were received with much acclaim in Germany, and while he was there he became familiar with the techniques of etching and lithography, which at the time had not yet gained a foothold in Russia.

When Shishkin returned to St. Petersburg, he became involved with the studio of Ivan Kramskoy, and in 1871 he joined the Peredvizhniki (“The Wanderers”), where his ideas about Russian landscape painting were enthusiastically welcomed.

His paintings united fidelity to nature with an individual epic style. Shishkin preferred to paint pine or oak forests in their pristine state during dry, sunny conditions.

These primordially Russian landscapes-seen in paintings such as Rye (1878), Far on the Plain (1883), Distant Forest (1884) and The Oaks (1887) -are imbued with folkloric associations.

The naturalistic depiction of every blade of grass paradoxically created a sensation of the majestic scale of the whole, as the entire painting was conceived as a quantitative apotheosis of separate details.

The artist’s rejection of the plein air style, which was roughly impressionistic, corresponded with his belief in the constancy of Russian nature and its abiding monumental order.

The absence of an airy perspective in his landscapes (the trees grow smaller the farther they stand from the viewer, according to the rules of linear perspective, but they do not lose the definition of their contours) also helped create the image of epic Russian steadfastness.

In the late 1880s Shishkin fell under the influence of new artistic currents and attempted to imbue his work with “atmosphere” (Morning in a Pine Forest, 1889), but even the air in such paintings gives an impression of solidity.

Shishkin’s “portrait” of Russian nature-expansive and rich, not subject to time and not dependent on human emotion-became associated with the staunchness and power of the Russian national character and with patriotic overtones of national history.

Being in this sense an incarnation of the “Russian spirit”, Shishkin’s paintings entered everyday life in Russia, becoming the decoration on candy wrappers and illustrations in textbooks. / Andrei D. Sarabianov - Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Il famoso pittore Russo Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin ([1832-1898), figlio di agiati mercanti, nacque nell'anno 1832 a Elabuga.

Quando Ivan compì 12 anni, il suo babbo lo condusse a Kazan' affinche' potesse frequentare la locale scuola ginnasiale. Ma Ivan non termino' gli studi ginnasiali e si dedico' con profitto all'apprendimento della pittura.

Dal 1852-1856 Ivan Shishkin studiò presso la scuola di pittura di Mosca.

Successivamente, nell'anno 1856, poco dopo aver terminato di frequentare tale scuola, Shishkin sostenne gli esami presso l'Accademia d'Arte e qui continuò i suoi studi.

Nel 1860 termino' l'Accademia meritandosi una medaglia d'oro e acquisendo la possibilità nonche' il diritto di continuare i propri studi all'estero.

Un anno dopo Shishkin si recò in Europa e trascorse l'inverno a Monaco di Baviera.

Qui prese lezioni di pittura da parte di famosi pittori tedeschi.

Viaggiando molto attraverso l'Europa, Shishkin dipinse numerosi quadri traendo in genere ispirazione dalla natura.

Nel 1865, Ivan Shishkin fu promosso Accademico.

Appena ritornato nella sua adorata patria, la Russia, si mise ancor più alacremente al lavoro, partecipò a numerose esposizioni e, con il trascorrere del tempo, diventò sempre piu' famoso come paesaggista.

Nel 1873 l'Accademia gli conferì il titolo di professore grazie al suo meraviglioso quadro che si intitola "Il fitto del bosco".

La natura è sempre stata il motivo centrale dei quadri di Shishkin.

In genere, amava dipingere l'inverno e l'estate.

Tra il 1880-1890 ci fu una svolta nell'arte di Shishkin: cominciò a lavorare su grandi tele e nel 1891 portò a termine il suo famoso quadro "La pioggia nel bosco di querce".

Tra i suoi più famosi e conosciuti quadri figurano: "Il fitto del bosco", "Segala" (si trova nella galleria Tret'yakov a Mosca),"Mattina nel bosco di pini" (si trova nella galleria Tret'yakov a Mosca) e numerosi altri paesaggi.

Ivan Shishkin morì improvvisamente nell'anno 1898.