Fyodor Vasilyev lived only 23 years. A delicate colorist and talented landscape painter endowed with an incredible sense of beauty, he died in Yalta from tuberculosis. Ivan Kramskoy wrote about the young artist: ‘We do not have a landscape poet in the true sense of the word, and if anyone can and should be, it is only Vasilyev.’
Vasilyev studied at the gymnasium for free thanks to his surprisingly sonorous voice that stood out in the local church choir. His teacher was Ivan Shishkin, with whom they soon became friends. Subsequently, Shishkin married the artist’s own sister. It was Shishkin who introduced Fyodor Vasilyev to landscape painting. Another famous painter, Ilya Repin, also played an important role in the formation of the artist’s personality and skill. Together they made a trip to the Volga lands. In landscapes, Repin tried to imitate Vasilyev, whom he admired. In his memoirs, he even called him a teacher, despite the difference of only six years, and noted that all participants of the trip were equal to him. Unfortunately, tuberculosis hindered the reveal of the artist’s full talent. Vasilyev made the presented work from the collection of the The Vasnetsov Brothers Art Museum in the last year of his life.
The artist is characterized by an emotional, sensual, romantic vision of the landscape. In his works, there is always the excitement of a person in love with the beauty of nature. Instead of restrained coloring, Vasilyev experimented with “adjacent tones”, so his paintings are characterized by the brightness and saturation of the color scheme. The artist depicted the moment of the nature’s awakening – clouds float across the sky, and the distant shore near the reservoir is shrouded in a misty haze. By combining shades in an astonishing way, Vasilyev achieves incredible veracity in depicting such a complex phenomenon. Nevertheless, of course, the viewer’s eyes are riveted by the sky. Fyodor Vasilyev attached great importance to it. The sky in his paintings always dominated the earth. We see a subtle but quite obvious source of light, as if penetrating through a milky-white shade, giving the light a slightly yellowish, almost creamy tone that spreads throughout the canvas, illuminating it with the first rays of the sun.
Vasilyev studied at the gymnasium for free thanks to his surprisingly sonorous voice that stood out in the local church choir. His teacher was Ivan Shishkin, with whom they soon became friends. Subsequently, Shishkin married the artist’s own sister. It was Shishkin who introduced Fyodor Vasilyev to landscape painting. Another famous painter, Ilya Repin, also played an important role in the formation of the artist’s personality and skill. Together they made a trip to the Volga lands. In landscapes, Repin tried to imitate Vasilyev, whom he admired. In his memoirs, he even called him a teacher, despite the difference of only six years, and noted that all participants of the trip were equal to him. Unfortunately, tuberculosis hindered the reveal of the artist’s full talent. Vasilyev made the presented work from the collection of the The Vasnetsov Brothers Art Museum in the last year of his life.
The artist is characterized by an emotional, sensual, romantic vision of the landscape. In his works, there is always the excitement of a person in love with the beauty of nature. Instead of restrained coloring, Vasilyev experimented with “adjacent tones”, so his paintings are characterized by the brightness and saturation of the color scheme. The artist depicted the moment of the nature’s awakening – clouds float across the sky, and the distant shore near the reservoir is shrouded in a misty haze. By combining shades in an astonishing way, Vasilyev achieves incredible veracity in depicting such a complex phenomenon. Nevertheless, of course, the viewer’s eyes are riveted by the sky. Fyodor Vasilyev attached great importance to it. The sky in his paintings always dominated the earth. We see a subtle but quite obvious source of light, as if penetrating through a milky-white shade, giving the light a slightly yellowish, almost creamy tone that spreads throughout the canvas, illuminating it with the first rays of the sun.
