Monday 24 September 2012

Ivan Shishkin - part 1



Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832 – 1898) was a Russian landscape painter closely associated with the Peredvizhniki movement. Peredvizhniki, often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who in protest at academic restrictions formed an artists' cooperative; it evolved into the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions in 1870.


The Peredvizhniki with Shiskin in the centre

Shishkin was born in Yelabuga of Vyatka Governorate (today Republic of Tatarstan), and graduated from the Kazan gymnasium. Then he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture for four years, attended the Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts from 1856 to 1860, from which he graduated with the highest honours and a gold medal. He received the Imperial scholarship for his further studies in Europe. Five years later Shishkin became a member of the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg and was professor of painting from 1873 to 1898. At the same time, Shishkin headed the landscape painting class at the Highest Art School in St. Petersburg.

For some time, Shishkin lived and worked in Switzerland and Germany on scholarship from the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts. On his return to Saint Petersburg, he became a member of the Circle of the Itinerants and of the Society of Russian Watercolorists. He also took part in exhibitions at the Academy of Arts, the All Russian Exhibition in Moscow (1882), the Nizhniy Novgorod (1896), and the World Fairs (Paris, 1867 and 1878, and Vienna, 1873). Shishkin's painting method was based on analytical studies of nature. He became famous for his forest landscapes, and was also an outstanding draftsman and a printmaker.

Ivan Shishkin owned a dacha in Vyra, south of St. Petersburg. There he painted some of his finest landscapes. His works are notable for poetic depiction of seasons in the woods, wild nature, animals and birds. He died in 1898, in St. Petersburg, Russia, while working on his new painting.

A minor planet, 3558 Shishkin, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1978 is named after him.

This is part 1 of a 5-part post on the works of Ivan Shishkin. Parts 1-4 will feature his paintings, part 5 his drawings. Unfortunately I couldn't find the medium or sizes for many of these works, though I believe they are all oil on canvas.

This is part 1 of a 5-part post on the works of Ivan Shishkin:


1856 Little House in Dusseldorf

1858 View of Valaam Island

1858-60 Stones in the Forest, Valaam

1859-60 View of Valaam Island, Kukko 
oil on canvas 69 x 87 cm

1860 View of Valaam Island, Kukko 
oil on canvas 104.5 x 141 cm

1861 Hovel

1861 Landscape

1863 Beech Forest in Switzerland

1863 Beech Forest in Switzerland

1864 Herd in the Forest

1864 Herd Beneath Trees

1864-65 In the Vicinity of Düsseldorf

1865 In the Grove oil on canvas

1865 Oak

1865 The Teutoburg Forest 
oil on canvas

1865 View near Düsseldorf 
oil on canvas

1866 Noon, Suburbs of Moscow, Bratsevo

1866 Old Oak

1866 Swiss Landscape

1867 At the Church Fence, Valaam

1867 Covert

1867 Study for the painting "Chopping Wood"

1868-69 Wood in the Evening

1869 A Walk in a Forest 
oil on canvas 34 x 43 cm

1869 In a Grove 
oil on canvas 36 x 54 cm

1869 Landscape with Walkers 
oil on canvas 32 x 42 cm

1869 Oak Forest

1870 Forest Landscape with Herons 
oil on canvas

1870 Gathering Mushrooms 
oil on canvas

1870 Near the Monastery

1871 Evening

1872 Backwoods 
oil on canvas 164 x 112.8 cm

1872 Forest before a Thunderstorm 
oil on canvas 48 x 59 cm

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