1832 -1898 · Ielabouga, Saint Petersburg and Russian landscape

Monumental pines, rye fields and undergrowth observed down to the bark make Ivan Shishkin the great realistic builder of the Russian forest.

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, often transcribed Shishkin, was born in 1832 in Yelabuga, on the Kama. He studied from 1852 to 1856 at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, then at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg. His landscapes in Valaam earned him the highest awards and a pension which allowed him to work in Germany and Switzerland. In Düsseldorf and Zurich, he deepened drawing, engraving and the methodical study of trees. Back in Russia, Chichkin did not seek rapid picturesqueness or idealized nature. Back in Russia, Chichkin did not seek rapid picturesqueness or idealized nature. He constructed each landscape from a precise knowledge of species, soils, trunks and light. Founding member from the Society of Traveling Art Exhibitions, he participated in a new national painting accessible in several cities. Rye field opens the space by a path that crosses the ears under tall pines; botanical detail becomes a vision of immensity. In the wild North isolates a snowy tree on a nocturnal height and transforms observation into romantic solitude. Bosquet de masts, one of his last large paintings, combines the rigor of trunks with the humid depth of the undergrowth. A morning in a pine forest remains his most popular image. Shishkin of poles, one of his last large paintings, combines the rigor of trunks with the humid depth of the undergrowth. A morning in a pine forest remains his most popular image. Shishkin paints the forest, while Konstantin Savitsky creates bears; the work brings together natural monument and animal story. A tireless designer, Chichkine is also a major engraver who renews landscape etching. He taught at the Academy and died in 1898 in Saint Petersburg, in front of his easel. His realism does not simply copy the forest: he makes its structure, growth and power readable. The "Ivan Shishkin" selection notably compares A Morning in a Pine Forest and Field of Rye. His reading favors movement.

Shishkin does not paint a generic forest: each pine has an age, a bark and a place, but their union becomes the monumental image of a country.