Society and Culture: Exhibition “Ivan Shishkin” from the collections of the Russian Museum held in Yaroslavl

The exhibition Ivan Shishkin has opened in the Yaroslavl Art Museum. It includes the most known works of the great Russian landscape painter from the collections of the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg).

The works provided by the Russian Museum for the exhibition date back to various periods of Shishkin’s activity. The painting View on the Outskirts of St. Petersburg (1856), created by the artist in the initial period of his study at the Imperial Academy of Arts, can be distinguished among his early works.

Sketching on Valaam became a serious professional school for the landscape painter. Shishkin transferred unusual natural forms to the canvas, accurately characterizing the specifics of the “wild nature” of far northern places (View on the Island of Valaam. Kukko, 1859 (60?); Landscape with a Hunter. Valaam Island, 1867). The enthusiastic atmosphere of creative trips to the island is captured in the sketch I. I. Shishkin and A. V. Gine in the Workshop on the Island of Valaam (1860).

Two years after graduating from the Academy of Arts, Shishkin went to Switzerland and Germany, where he began to paint woodlands and individual trees. Therefore, visitors to the exhibition can see two of Shishkin’s works of the same name – Beech Forest in Switzerland (1863).

In Germany, the Russian painter tried to find plein-air motifs in the vicinity of the middle reaches of the Rhine, reminding him of his native nature. The main result of Shishkin’s creative search in the mid-1860s was the painting View near Dusseldorf (1865) for which he was awarded the title of academician. A sketch for it (1864) is also presented at the exhibition.

Shishkin’s travels contributed to the acquisition of professional skills and the formation of an acute perception of the national characteristics of native nature. The rural landscape and peasant life of post-reform Russia occupy an important place in the painter’s work (Village Courtyard, late 1860s).

Undoubtedly, some of the most significant achievements of Shishkin are paintings The Path in the Forest (1880) and Brook in a Birch Forest (1883). Usually, they decorate the permanent exhibition of the Mikhailovsky Palace in the Russian Museum, but this time visitors to the exhibition in Yaroslavl will also have a chance to see them.

In the last period of his activity, Shishkin devoted a lot of time to authentic lighting in landscape paintings (Backyards Illuminated by the Sun, 1880s-1890s). Universal techniques have emerged in the visual language of the master, making it possible to convincingly convey the most complex states of nature.

The exposition is presented within the framework of the project Cultural and Exhibition Centre of the Russian Museum, and is complemented by various educational and concert programs.

The exhibition will run until March 26, 2023.