Painter Fyodor Vasilyev died when he was only 23 years; however, during his lifetime he managed to paint more than a hundred paintings. Critics and contemporaries noted his ‘ability to appeal to the feelings of the viewer and evoke a sense of spiritual belonging’.
Vasilyev grew up in the family of a low-level postal official. His father died early, and Vasilyev had to take care of his mother, sister and brothers by himself. The future artist worked as assistant to a restorer of pictures in the workshop of Pyotr Sokolov in Saint Petersburg. Concurrently, he took evening classes at the School of Painting of the Society for Promotion of Artists. One of his teachers was Ivan Kramskoi, who highly praised the talent of the young man. By the end of his studies, Vasilyev developed a close friendship with Kramskoi, as well as with Ivan Shishkin and Ilya Repin: the artists went to paint en plein air together and discussed the themes of their artworks.
An important moment in Vasilyev’s work happened when he took a trip with Shishkin to Valaam, where they worked together from June to late autumn of 1867. There the artist made a lot of sketches and drawings, based on which he later created the paintings “After a Rain”, “Near a Church. Valaam”, “Village yard”. After traveling on the Volga with Ilya Repin and Evgeny Makarov, Vasilyev created bright and colorful landscapes “Lakuna on Volga”, “Volga View. Barges” and “Thaw”. During this period, the artist caught a bad cold and doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis, from which he never recovered.
Vasilyev’s artistic style was significantly influenced by the artistic philosophy of French artists of the Barbizon school. They were distinguished by a spiritual perception of nature and depictions of simple genuine scenes. Vasilyev preferred to paint the ordinary nature of Central Russia: meadows, copses, swampy lowlands. He was able to accurately convey various shades, lighting effects, and the overall mood of the landscape: the state of nature before or after the rain, wet grass or melting snow, the sky — most often with light clouds or dark storm clouds. Vasilyev introduced an element of philosophical understanding of nature to the landscape genre.
On the backside of the painting ‘After a Fire’, presented in the exhibition, is a label with another variant of the title ‘A Fire near St. Petersburg’. In the center of the composition is a half-burned wooden house, somewhere in the suburbs; behind it a churchyard is visible in the distance. Vasilyev chose to depict an unremarkable, emphatically trivial scene. Painting the image of a leaning house where people lived until just some moments ago the artist tried to convey the fragility of human happiness.
Vasilyev grew up in the family of a low-level postal official. His father died early, and Vasilyev had to take care of his mother, sister and brothers by himself. The future artist worked as assistant to a restorer of pictures in the workshop of Pyotr Sokolov in Saint Petersburg. Concurrently, he took evening classes at the School of Painting of the Society for Promotion of Artists. One of his teachers was Ivan Kramskoi, who highly praised the talent of the young man. By the end of his studies, Vasilyev developed a close friendship with Kramskoi, as well as with Ivan Shishkin and Ilya Repin: the artists went to paint en plein air together and discussed the themes of their artworks.
An important moment in Vasilyev’s work happened when he took a trip with Shishkin to Valaam, where they worked together from June to late autumn of 1867. There the artist made a lot of sketches and drawings, based on which he later created the paintings “After a Rain”, “Near a Church. Valaam”, “Village yard”. After traveling on the Volga with Ilya Repin and Evgeny Makarov, Vasilyev created bright and colorful landscapes “Lakuna on Volga”, “Volga View. Barges” and “Thaw”. During this period, the artist caught a bad cold and doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis, from which he never recovered.
Vasilyev’s artistic style was significantly influenced by the artistic philosophy of French artists of the Barbizon school. They were distinguished by a spiritual perception of nature and depictions of simple genuine scenes. Vasilyev preferred to paint the ordinary nature of Central Russia: meadows, copses, swampy lowlands. He was able to accurately convey various shades, lighting effects, and the overall mood of the landscape: the state of nature before or after the rain, wet grass or melting snow, the sky — most often with light clouds or dark storm clouds. Vasilyev introduced an element of philosophical understanding of nature to the landscape genre.
On the backside of the painting ‘After a Fire’, presented in the exhibition, is a label with another variant of the title ‘A Fire near St. Petersburg’. In the center of the composition is a half-burned wooden house, somewhere in the suburbs; behind it a churchyard is visible in the distance. Vasilyev chose to depict an unremarkable, emphatically trivial scene. Painting the image of a leaning house where people lived until just some moments ago the artist tried to convey the fragility of human happiness.
