XIX century in Russia is the time of appearancean extraordinary number of talented world-class artists and writers. Among them, the painter Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin took an outstanding place. The article is devoted to the creation of one picture - it is "Oak Grove". Shishkin painted it in 1887, when he was a mature and long-recognized landscape painter.
Brief information about the artist
И. И.Shishkin (1832-1898), after graduating from the Academy of Arts, was sent abroad for an internship. He studied for two years in Germany. For one landscape, written at that time and sent home, the painter received the title of academician.
I.I.Shishkin surprised his teachers in Germany with his pen. Some of his drawings were placed in the Düsseldorf Museum along with the best works of European masters. In this article we will pay all attention to the picture "Oak Grove". Shishkin, before writing it, pondered the idea and made sketches for 30 years. We selected drawings and etude, which, as it seems to us, are directly connected with this work.
Brilliant Draftsman
Among the Russian landscape painters there was no strongerartist, who so skillfully owned exactly the picture. He spoke most vividly in works that were performed in the same tone. An example is the work “Woman with a boy in the forest” (1868). Here used paper, pen, ink, watercolor, varnish.
"Oak, lit by the sun"
Joyful and bright watercolor with whitewash studies tothe smallest details of the bark of an ancient tree, the location of its branches, the play of light, which in various ways illuminates individual areas and light shadows. The master does not pass by the attention, as the dried branches of the tree fall down, as the grass grows around him, as the trees stand in the background. In the future, this work will leave an imprint on the painting "Oak Grove".
Shishkin in watercolor uses a completely differentcolor, more juicy and rich than in the later large-scale production of oil. The artist gives the spectator the joy and fullness of life with this small (26x20 cm) work. The lone oak giant standing on the edge is a true masterpiece that precedes the Oak Grove canvas. Shishkin, working on other landscapes, always remembered the oak forests and sought to prepare for their image.
Sketch of the 90s
Another small work (22x28 cm) is “Oakswith sunlight. " The etude is almost a picture of Shishkin's “Oak Grove”: the same silhouettes of trunks, only located differently. Fast brush strokes merge the foliage of the trees into one.
Oak Grove, Shishkin: description
The canvas depicts an untouched, virgin forestlit by the summer sun. In the foreground are two majestic giants who have survived for more than one century. Here the characteristic quality of the artist was manifested in all its fullness - thoroughness in drawing all the smallest details. This foliage, which is natural to the limit, is grass with delicate, airy flowering dandelions, it is a boulder covered with moss.
The antiquity and power of oaks harmoniously "get along" withfine details: flowers, grass, bushes, thin young trunks of young trees. The beauty and power of the oak forest is transmitted through sprawling crowns, which seem to reach the sky through wrinkles and separate chips on the uncovered trunks, through freedom and space between the trees. They grow loosely. Each of them is given its own place. This characteristic feature of the oak forest was subtly noticed by the artist and transferred to the canvas.
The sun floods the image and creates carefreeand cloudless mood. Its glare and spots playing on the grass and trunks create a contrast with the shadows in the depths of the grove and give it a true life. "Oak Grove" - a masterpiece of I. I. Shishkin, one of the peaks of his work. This concludes the description of Shishkin's painting “Oak Grove”.
