First Snow 1875 140h220 Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898)

Description of Ivan Shishkin’s painting "First Snow".

Among Shishkin’s many and varied works, there is one that is not peculiar to his style of painting. It is "First Snow." The painting was painted in 1875. Looking at the work, we see a damp and slushy, suggestive sadness. The painting depresses and makes us long for the warm days of summer. The melting snow forms a slushy mess, his feet feel as if they are drowning in mud, and he wants to crawl under a warm blanket. Nature is anxious about the arrival of winter, even the forest looks chilled by such weather.

Shishkin succeeded in showing very realistically the mood of nature in late autumn. His favorite subject - the forest. In the painting "The first snow" looks lyrical condition, unusual for the creativity of the author. Critics and art connoisseurs do not pass by this picture. It evokes a sense of wistfulness, dampness and loneliness. Shishkin quite accurately portrayed gray sky, heavy thawed snow. On the canvas reigns naturalness, there is nothing superfluous and fictitious.

Shishkin believed that practice is very important in the creative process and only with its help you can understand what you are portraying and see the beauty of the moment. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully study nature. In landscapes the author’s imagination should not be present.

To date, the painting "First Snow" is protected by the Kiev State Museum of Russian Art. Shishkin created in his paintings not just a forest, but showed its power and strength. For contemporaries, through his love of nature, Shishkin himself has become a symbol of the beauty of the Russian forest and the mighty power of the people. He was called the king of the forest, forester, compared to the sturdy old pine. Based on the works of Shishkin learn to paint other painters, even many children know his work. We can only hope that this work of art will finally be appreciated.