 |
The Rocky Landscape, Ivan Shiskin 1889, oil on board, 25 cm x 26 cm Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts |
The paintings of Russian painter Ivan Shiskin (1832-1898) share much with the work of his French contemporary, Bastien-Lepage. Both painted achingly realistic landscapes in a style called Naturalism. But did the one influence the other? Although over two thousand miles separate Moscow and Paris, in the nineteenth century they were virtual neighbors. Russia enjoyed such strong cultural ties with France that French was even the official language of the Russian court. Naturalism—both a literary and artistic style that tried to represent the world honestly and without distortion—arrived in Russia via French novels and paintings.
Shiskin, a habitual drawer of trees, painted them so realistically that he became known as the “Tsar of the Forest.” He spent a lot of time in the woods as a youth and while studying at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture. Afterward, he went on to study at the St Petersburg Academy of Arts where he won the Academy's Gold Medal, granting him a stipend for study in Europe. He eventually settled down for study at the Düsseldorf Academy in Germany, where the curriculum included a focus on building a hard-edged, linear quality into one's painting and creating epic compositions. (Think of the grandly realistic “Washington Crossing the Delaware” by Leutze, who also studied at Düsseldorf.)
Upon Shiskin's return to Russia, he joined a group of reactionary artists called the Peredvizhniki (the Itinerants.) He found the group sympathetic to his belief that the Russian academy was old-fashioned in its views and narrow in its definition of “good painting.” The group, which included other high-caliber artists like Issac Levitan, considered Shiskin one of its founders and held him in high regard.
Interestingly, besides using field drawings and sketches as references for studio work, Shiskin later in life embraced photography and found it a useful tool for the study of nature. As part of his teaching method—he was a professor at the Imperial Academy—he had students create drawings based on photographs that were projected and enlarged full-size on a screen via a “magic lantern.” He did this primarily during the winter months when it wasn't possible to go out and work from life. By summer, the students had gained sufficient drawing skills to go outdoors to paint with color.
 |
Forest Stream 1870 |
 |
Birch Forest 1871 |
 |
Near the Monastery 1870 |
Forest Stream
1870
Near the Monastery
1870
Birch Forest
1871
