The study Spring in the Forest from the collection of Tyumen Museum and Educational Society is by a Russian painter Ivan Shishkin, known as the master of forest landscape. His contemporaries said that he created ‘tree portrait’ — he could identify a tree just by seeing the sketch of its bark or section. His studies drawn from nature were often considered complete works. Even collectors, for instance, arts patron Pavel Tretyakov, valued them no less than large canvases and was happy to buy them. His colleagues, especially young artists rated Shishkin’s studies highly for being close to the most modern trends in landscape painting, especially in terms of colour and rendering light and air. However, the painter stayed loyal to his principles of exactness in drawing, elaborateness of detail and substantiality of image. The painter viewed his numerous studies as an essential part of scrupulous efforts to learn about nature, flora in particular.
His interest of a natural scientist made Ivan Shishkin travel to different parts of the country, among which he preferred the distantly located places in the North. Vladimir Stasov, a critic, wrote about Ivan Shishkin: “All his life he has been studying Russian, mainly Northern, forest, Russian trees, depths of the woods and thicket. It is his realm, here he has no rivals, he is the only one”. From May to June 7, 1892, despite the worsening health, Ivan Shishkin went to draw in Spala in Belovezha forest. A painter Andrey Shilder and a photographer Eugene Vishnyakov accompanied him during the trip. The rainy summer did not stop Shishkin from doing a lot of work, drawing form nature in Shmetsk, on the Baltic Sea shore and on the islands of Petersburg: Aptekarsky, Krestovsky and Kamenny. After the season, the Academy of Arts arranged an exhibition of studies by Ivan Shishkin. The exhibition opened on January 10, 1893. It showed 58 studies, among them Spring in the Forest.
Carefully elaborating upon the forefront details, the painter achieved fascinating depth of the depicted surroundings: smooth gradient within the greenish-brown range of colours, attention to every blade of grass, accurate and skillful drawing.
His interest of a natural scientist made Ivan Shishkin travel to different parts of the country, among which he preferred the distantly located places in the North. Vladimir Stasov, a critic, wrote about Ivan Shishkin: “All his life he has been studying Russian, mainly Northern, forest, Russian trees, depths of the woods and thicket. It is his realm, here he has no rivals, he is the only one”. From May to June 7, 1892, despite the worsening health, Ivan Shishkin went to draw in Spala in Belovezha forest. A painter Andrey Shilder and a photographer Eugene Vishnyakov accompanied him during the trip. The rainy summer did not stop Shishkin from doing a lot of work, drawing form nature in Shmetsk, on the Baltic Sea shore and on the islands of Petersburg: Aptekarsky, Krestovsky and Kamenny. After the season, the Academy of Arts arranged an exhibition of studies by Ivan Shishkin. The exhibition opened on January 10, 1893. It showed 58 studies, among them Spring in the Forest.
Carefully elaborating upon the forefront details, the painter achieved fascinating depth of the depicted surroundings: smooth gradient within the greenish-brown range of colours, attention to every blade of grass, accurate and skillful drawing.
