Ivan Shishkin was an artist affiliated with the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions that was established in the second half of the 19th century. Its members belonged to the national realistic school of painting, and opposed themselves to academic artists. The Itinerants often addressed social issues in their art. Their paintings were characterized by keen psychological sensibilities and by realism bordering on naturalism.
In the Spruce Forest
Creation period
1870s
Dimensions
34x27 cm
Technique
oil on canvas
Collection
4
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Ivan Shishkin’s landscape painting was distinguished by its broad scope, well-defined lines and exactness in following nature. The artist carefully studied nature, so he depicted it in his paintings to the smallest detail. Painter Ivan Kramskoy wrote about the skill of his fellow-artist:
“Shishkin simply amazes us with his knowledge […] And when he is in front of nature, he is right in his element; he is brave and does not pause to think how, what and why, here he knows everything; I think that he is the only person around us who knows nature in a scientific way […] Shishkin is a ‘man-school.’”
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However, for detailed imagery, Shishkin created a generic, epic image of Russian nature in his works.
The artist preferred to work in the wilderness, where nothing reminded him of humans, especially in the months at the peak of summer, hot and sunny. This is exactly how he portrayed a forest thicket in the picture In the Fir Forest — he made it to look wild and impenetrable.
Shishkin “cut off” the tops of the trees and left them outside of the canvas. The painter often resorted to that technique in order to create the impression of a “boundless forest” that has no beginning or end.
A fallen trunk forms the center of the composition. This is a characteristic feature of many of Shishkin’s landscapes: He liked to insert expressive details that attracted the attention of the viewer.
The artist preferred to work in the wilderness, where nothing reminded him of humans, especially in the months at the peak of summer, hot and sunny. This is exactly how he portrayed a forest thicket in the picture In the Fir Forest — he made it to look wild and impenetrable.
Shishkin “cut off” the tops of the trees and left them outside of the canvas. The painter often resorted to that technique in order to create the impression of a “boundless forest” that has no beginning or end.
A fallen trunk forms the center of the composition. This is a characteristic feature of many of Shishkin’s landscapes: He liked to insert expressive details that attracted the attention of the viewer.
The State Russian Museum keeps an 1878 drawing by Shishkin, which has similarities to the picture In the Fir Forest. Apparently, the artist liked that picturesque scene, and he explored it more than once.
Nineteenth-century artists recognized Ivan Shishkin as a great master, unrivalled ‘among Russian painters of vegetation in nature.’ For example, Ilya Repin said about him: ‘The loudest voice came from Shishkin, the epic warrior hero. The audience, as it was, would gasp behind his back when with his mighty paws of a wagon driver and with his gnarled fingers crippled by work, he would begin to mutilate and wipe out his brilliant drawing, and the drawing, as though by some magic, would come out even more elegant and more brilliant from that rough treatment.’
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Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
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In the Spruce Forest
Creation period
1870s
Dimensions
34x27 cm
Technique
oil on canvas
Collection
4
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