"Oak Grove", Shishkin. 30 years of searching for truth and beauty

The 19th century in Russia is the time of appearance of an extraordinary number of talented artists and world-class writers. Among them, the painter Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin took an outstanding place. The article is devoted to the creation of one picture - the "Oak Grove". Shishkin wrote it in 1887, when he was a mature and long recognized landscape painter.

Brief information about the artist

II 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 artist received the title of academician.

II Shishkin surprised his teachers in Germany with pen works. Some of his drawings are placed in the museum of Dusseldorf, 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 the drawings and sketch, which, it seems to us, are directly related to this work.

Brilliant draftsman

Among the Russian landscape painters, there was no stronger artist who masterfully mastered the drawing. He expressed himself most vividly in the works, which are performed in one tone. An example is the work "A Woman with a Boy in the Forest" (1868). Here paper, a pen, ink, a water color, a varnish are used. Golden-brown tones perfectly transmitted sunlight, penetrating through thick crowns and sliding along the powerful trunks of trees that stand in the foreground. Finely traced foliage and small bushes at the foot of the trunks. Thanks to the monochrome work, everything took a complete form, in which any detail would be superfluous. This work already resembles the canvas "Oak Grove". Shishkin carefully studied, clearly enjoying the work, the distinctive features of the oak forest. In the next watercolor, we will see a completely different study of the artist.

"Oak, illuminated by the sun"

Joyful and bright watercolor with whitewashes studies to the smallest detail the bark of a century-old tree, the location of its branches, the play of light, which in various ways illuminates certain areas and light shadows. Do not pass by the master's attention, as the dried branches of the tree fall, how grass grows around him, how the trees stand in the background. In the future, this work will leave an imprint on the picture "Oak Grove".

Shishkin in watercolor uses a completely different color, more juicy and saturated than in the later large-scale oil product. The artist gives joy and fullness of life to the viewer of this small (26x20 cm) work. A lone oak-giant standing on the edge of the forest is a real masterpiece that precedes the canvas "Oak Grove". 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 "Oaks under sunlight". Etude - already almost a picture of Shishkin "Oak Grove": the same silhouettes of trunks, only otherwise located. Quick strokes brush the foliage of the trees into one. The artist considers the future composition structure and carefully studies light and shade. This, and not the study of details - the main task of the sketch. Shishkin's painting "Oak Grove" will be written very similar, but differently. The master will change the location of trees in the foreground and clearly, with photographic accuracy, depict an oak forest.

«Oak Grove», Shishkin: description

The canvas shows an untouched, virgin forest illuminated by the summer sun. In the foreground - two majestic giant, survived for more than one century. Here the characteristic quality of the artist was manifested in all its completeness - carefulness in drawing all the smallest details. This foliage, which to the limit is natural, is a grass with gentle, air-blooming dandelions, it is a boulder, overgrown with moss.

Antiquity and the power of oaks harmoniously "get along" with small details: flowers, grass, bushes, thin young trunks of young trees. The beauty and power of the oak forest is transmitted through spreading crowns that seem to reach the sky through wrinkles and separate chips on unreachable trunks, through freedom and space between trees. They grow loose. Each of them has 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 a carefree and 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 by I. I. Shishkin, one of the tops of his work. On this we finish the description of the picture of Shishkin "Oak Grove".