1874 Village Paper. graph. pencil, white 55, 4h90, 3 Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898)

Description of the painting "The Village" by Ivan Shishkin

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin occupies one of the most honorable places in Russian painting. He painted only landscapes, occasionally diluting them with animals and birds; his characteristic, detailed style is immediately memorable and impossible to forget. While still a student at the Academy of Arts, Ivan devoted a great deal of space to drawing from life, considering this an especially important moment in the activities of a master of painting. His first trips to the outskirts of St. Petersburg and to Valaam shaped the painter’s style. Unlike the majority of Russian artists, who often and willingly went abroad, he worked mainly in Russia, in the vicinities of St. Petersburg. His only trip abroad (to Germany) was cut short on his own before the deadline, as he missed his native places.

Shishkin was already considered the most powerful Russian landscape painter during his lifetime. In all his paintings he shows an amazing knowledge of plant life, accurately reproducing the smallest distinctive details of certain trees, bushes and grass. His paintings amaze with perfect truthfulness of form. Against the background of this thorough descriptiveness, the form sometimes seems to be to the detriment of colorism. That is why his monochrome, black-and-white works, etchings and engravings are especially valued.

The work "The Village" is written in pencil and whitewash on paper. The artist again turns to his favorite subject - pictures of Russian nature, but in this case, the picture clearly felt the presence of man. Eulogizing the vastness of his native land with the help of minimal pictorial resources the artist perfectly conveys the height of summer sky with soft cumulus clouds, and the fantasy of ramshackle village buildings, mighty fractures of trees and the density of roadside grass. In the foreground, white geese graze in a thicket of flowers; further along the bend in the road you can see a small herd of cows chewing low grass.

The house closest to the viewer, old but sturdy, with a tiny window, is surrounded by crumbling outbuildings covered in thatch. The buildings on the right seem newer and more substantial. Lush trees stretch their branches toward the sky, lined with birds’ wings. Long shadows cross the country road stretching into the distance, crooked by potholes and bumps. In spite of its monochromes, the work wonderfully conveys a sense of the Central Russian summer, with its warmth in the air, the rustle of leaves, and the smell of the earth warmed over the day.