Oak-wood (Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, 1887, oil on canvas)
Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (Ива́н Ива́нович Ши́шкин) was born in Yelabuga, in central Russia near the Volga in 1832. His father was a free-thinking merchant who encouraged exploration of the world and supported young Ivan in his artistic studies. Ivan became part of “the itinerants” a group of artists who chose to ignore the rigid rules of European art and doggedly pursue their own interests and subjects. For Ivan this was the magnificent forests of Russia which he painted in all of their splendor with stupendously adroit realism. He surely ranks as one of the greatest forest painters of all time. Each of his canvases presents a living forest as its own world. Every tree is as distinct as a person and they are joined as a thriving whole within a larger ecosystem of plants, fungi, and living things.
Stream by a Forest Slope (Ivan I. Shishkin, 1880, oil on canvas)
Here are three of Ivan’s astonishing paintings. The viewer can feel how each forest has a completely different character and mood. The open meadows around the great oaks in the first painting are as different as possible from the brown stream running out of the firs…which is again as different as can be from the dark pine wood filled with woodears and mosses.
Wind-Fallen Trees (Ivan I. Shiskin, 1888, oil on canvas)
Yet, though they are different, each of his forests is a beautiful and sacred place—a transcendent slice of nature. Ivan’s work is not as famous as it should be because he chose to take it directly to the Russian people rather than selling it to aristocrats or Europeans (an attitude which was part of the itinerant philosophy). However his travels through rural Russia kept his mission pure and kept him close to his true love—the Russian woods. Thanks to his life beyond the limelight we can now travel these erstwhile greenwoods by means of art and learn to see the breathtaking majesty of the forest.
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September 1, 2015 at 11:55 PM
Edgar
The “oak wood” at the top is poor in oaks but full of pines like masts – others call it the “Mast Grove”
September 2, 2015 at 11:36 PM
Wayne
Whoops! Wrong image! Thanks for editing for me. I have changed it to the right picture.
September 2, 2015 at 12:31 AM
Secret Gardener
I was so amazed to discover this painter—I guess I’d heard nothing of Russian painters in general, but a few years ago found several who lovingly did landscapes–But Shishkin’s were the most breathtaking
I have a couple I’ve been keeping in files for use someday on my blog–when I find a fitting context–if I do.
September 2, 2015 at 11:33 PM
Wayne
They are astonishing. If I had the money I would buy one–I don’t think he has blown up yet!
September 3, 2015 at 8:25 AM
Secret Gardener
It’s a funny concept, when you use the contemporary lingo.
But 200 years after his birth he might, in fact, become precious for preserving what could soon be otherwise only memories of what I think is the most beautiful feature on earth—a green forest. —Not a rain forest, not the big raw mountains of the western U.S., not flowers or gardens—but just a great expanse of magnificent mature trees, leaves whispering in the air, sun filtering through the leaves, ferns & moss on the ground–instead of the scrub you find in young re-planted woods that are never allowed to age naturally—or carpets of needles that smell sweeter than anything else in the world.
And I just saw a wonderful portrait of him—
September 9, 2015 at 1:59 AM
Calendar Girl
Yay! My grandma had a wall carpet with this embroidered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_in_a_Pine_Forest#/media/File:Utro_v_sosnovom_lesu.jpg
It’s probably still in her apartment