The exhibition, organized by the gallery "Kabinet", will present 90 works of lottery graphics of the famous Wanderer, including 60 best etchings from a valuable folder in 1894

Antique galleries "Kabinet"
July 26 - September 4, 2016
daily, except Monday, from 11:00 to 20:00 in halls 14b and 15, 2nd floor
Moscow, Central House of Artists, st. Krymsky Val, 10

Etchings by Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin are among the undisputed leaders in terms of liquidity on the Russian auction market. We once calculated that in 2014/2015, out of 100 exhibited works by Shishkin, 69 were sold. This is taking into account all categories, including painting and original graphics. And separately in the draw schedule, almost everything that is exhibited is sold at all.

And this is quite understandable.

The first reason: we are not talking about an exercise and not a passing direction for the artist's work, but about works in the technique in which Ivan Shishkin was especially strong. Shishkin was an impeccably precise draftsman. And if in painting, in working with color, he did not succeed in everything, then drawing and complex printmaking techniques became his true element, where he felt like a fish in water.

The second reason is even simpler: these spectacular, painstaking, genuine etchings by a Russian artist of the first row cost quite affordable money on the Russian market - from 25,000 to 80,000 rubles per sheet, more often around 65,000 rubles. Many collectors can afford these things.

A lot of etchings by the Wanderer sold at the auctions of the Kabinet house, which became the organizer of the current exhibition Unknown Shishkin. It will open in the central halls of the Central House of Artists on Krymsky Val on June 26 and will last until September 4, 2016.

The center of the exposition will probably be a rare folder of the publisher and bookseller Alfred Fedorovich Marx. The last folder, published in a not very large edition, included 60 selected etchings by Shishkin - the pinnacle of his work in printmaking. In preparing this album, Shishkin updated his old boards, went through the etching needle, and even finalized some compositionally. In particular, the etching “Winter Night” of 1876 (made 18 years before) was subjected to such refinement, which Shishkin even renamed “Winter Moonlit Night”. In addition to the old finished etchings, Shishkin included in the album 19 new works that had not been published before.

The fate of complete albums (as well as artist's books and any books with lithographs) is often difficult. Owners and sellers have a great temptation to dismantle them and sell them in parts - it's easier and more profitable that way. The same happened with the Marx folder. It seems that there were not so few of them, and only a few have survived in complete form to this day. And the exhibition gives a rare chance to see it in its entirety.

The Central House of Artists will have not only Shishkin's etchings. “Kabinet” will show a single color self-portrait of Shishkin from the collection of the publisher A.E. Palchikov, a unique etching on silk “Juniper. Crimea" in 1885 and Shishkin's last engraving "Oak" (1897).

"Kabinet" promises other surprises. There will be no Pokemon, but the organizers came up with "a new interpretation of Shishkin's etchings, transferring them to 3D images and combining the resulting stereo posters into thematic triptychs." In general, it is not yet clear. But it is clear that there will be plates with reproductions of Shishkin's works and posters produced using a special technology. A catalog has been prepared for the exhibition, which includes not only reproductions of things from the exposition, but all known etchings by Shishkin.

Vladimir Bogdanov,AI

I.I. Shishkin (1832-1898) -fine draftsman with pencil and pen, was a professional engraver. He created over a hundred sheets in his life, devoting them entirely to the image of his native Russian nature. His etchings are distinguished by a subtle knowledge of nature, beautiful and faithful drawing and perfect technique. I.I. Shishkin, a remarkable artist of the Russian landscape, briefly got acquainted with etching in 1863 in Switzerland at Koller. He thoroughly began to study it in St. Petersburg in the circle of Wanderers in the "Society of Russian Aquafortists" founded by them (1871 - 1874). Along with painting, he devoted a lot of time and effort to the manufacture of etching boards. He worked in depth and concentration. We know of many proof prints made from boards during the manufacturing process. In addition to the usual needle intake, I.I. Shishkin used soft varnish, aquatint, drypoint. Numerous drawings from nature served as materials for his engravings. With his autographic etching works I.I. Shishkin greatly expanded the circle of his audience, drawing their attention to their native Russian nature. This was the great merit of I.I. Shishkin, who created over a hundred etchings, which were published as separate works or entire series. In 1868, the first album of his engravings (six lithographs) - "Etudes from Life with a Pen on Stone" - was published, and in May 1873 he prepared and printed the first album of etchings (11 sheets), released as a prize from the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. The next two folders are published in 1878 and in 1886, and, as a culmination, in 1894 the album “60 etchings by I. I. Shishkin. 1870 - 1892 ”(published by A. F. Marx, St. Petersburg). In addition, I. I. Shishkin created more than two dozen autozincographies (the so-called convex etching), specially designed as supplements to the magazines "Pchela", "Svet" and "Niva". The talent of our incomparable landscape painter, we believe, is well known everywhere in Russia, where there is even the slightest interest in art. His many years of assiduous activity produced many many paintings, drawings and engravings, which were sold to the masses of the artistic public, and who among those who saw these works of the well-deserved professor was not surprised at his deep knowledge of the forms and effects of Russian nature and his skill to convey her impressions subtly, distinctly, characteristically. Who has not admired his views of impenetrable forest slums, which can only be found in our north, his portraits of firs and pines growing on sandy cliffs or among dense ferns, his cheerful paths and clearings in birch and oak groves, his wide spreading meadows along the banks of rivers and rivers, its fertile fields covering smooth and hilly areas, and, finally, its gloomy Finnish and Crimean rocks hanging over the sea or over a cluttered gorge. And all these diverse motifs of the Russian landscape are conveyed by the artist in a highly original way, with his own understanding and feeling of nature, which testifies to his boundless love for the motherland. This originality, in connection with the skill of the draftsman and technique in general, puts Shishkin high among landscape painters not only in Russia, but also in Western Europe. Whenever a famous artist lays aside his brush and equips himself with a pencil, a drawing pen, or an engraving needle, landscapes are created under his hand that are remarkable as much in strength and harmony of tones as in the mainness of the drawing. We must point out in connection with the series of his etchings lying before us, with which he has just enlarged his already venerable engraving oeuvre. In this album of his, every leaf is a magnificent picture, entirely captured from nature, but poeticized by the feeling of the artist, and, moreover, executed with such perfection that any of the most famous European masters could envy. About one of our contemporary artists I would like to say as much and to my heart as about Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, and hardly any of his comrades represents such an integral and complete image, such a characteristic figure as this true “poet of nature” is. ".

It is difficult to find a better definition for him. He really lives the same life with her, he devotes himself entirely to her, and she has no secrets from her interpreter. Look at the portrait of our "forest man" (may the reader forgive me this expression), not only look, but think about this strong and strong man, from whom the resinous and healthy smell of dark forest, the power of old Russian reserved wilds, blows on you. In the group of artists to whom Russian painting is indebted for the remarkable development of the landscape in it, one of the first places belongs to Professor Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. He acquired it with his ardent love for nature, his rare understanding of the peculiarities of nature in our country, the strict study of his specialty, not so much under the guidance of any mentors, but with the help of innate observation and diligent work - in short, a strong, original talent, not buried under a bushel. These qualities, with the first appearance of Shishkin's works before the public, drew general attention to him, gradually spread his fame, and, finally, secured for him the glory of a first-class landscape painter in our school, a glory that will remain with him in the history of Russian art. Shishkin, in all fairness, is reputed to be the most powerful draftsman among our landscape painters, an amazing connoisseur of plant forms reproduced by him in paintings with a subtle understanding of both the general character and the smallest distinguishing features of any kind of trees, bushes and grasses. Whether he takes on the image of a pine or spruce forest - individual pines and firs, just like their totality, appear with him with their true physiognomy, without any embellishment or reductions, in that form and with those particulars that are fully explained and are conditioned by the place, soil and climate where the artist makes them grow. Whether he paints an oak or a birch, these trees assume in him utterly true forms in foliage, branches, trunks and roots, saying that he not only grabbed them at one particular moment, but also tried to comprehend their former existence. This fidelity to the forms of nature, this meaningful, loving attitude to selected subjects, put a bright and attractive stamp on every work that comes out from under the brush of our venerable landscape painter. Shishkin is attractive in all his works, especially good when he works with a pencil or pen, or plays with an engraving needle. Whoever agrees with this view of ours, like us, will find an explanation for this view in the very properties of our artist's talent. In addition to oil paintings, Shishkin produced in his lifetime several dozen pen drawings, highly valued by lovers of this kind of work. But both paintings and drawings by a skilled craftsman are available for purchase only to a select few of fortune; the majority of mortals must be content with photographs from both. Such photographs from the works of Mr. Shishkin are widely distributed and highly respected by landscape lovers. But what does a photograph, always dull and vague, mean in comparison with a brilliant and rich print imprinted from an engraved metal plate? Therefore, the idea that came to Shishkin to engrave on copper with strong vodka (etching) was a happy thought. This kind of engraving, simple in its techniques and fertile in its results, first of all and most of all requires the ability of the artist to draw well and some skills in working with pen and wet ink. Shishkin was already a great expert in both areas when he first armed himself with an engraving needle and etched the first board drawn with it. This was in 1853. His first etching was called "Mountain Road". Later, in Zurich, where our landscape painter was as a pensioner of the Academy of Arts, sent abroad to complete his artistic education, he executed two engravings, as if out of a prank, but they came out so successfully that they could not help but inspire him to indulge in etching more seriously. . But the return to his homeland that followed soon after, and the need to work hard with a brush in order to establish his reputation here as a painter, distracted our artist from his beloved work. Only in 1870, when a circle called the Society of Russian Aquafortists was formed in St. Petersburg, did he again take up engraving, and, being more experienced among the members of this circle, he helped many with his advice and example. Since that time, Shishkin did not stop doing etching in moments of leisure from more busy and large-scale artworks and produced his prints either in separate sheets or in whole series, each time arousing the enthusiasm of our collectors of engravings and forcing them to chase each other for the first and best prints of these works.

At one time, in order to find a way to reproduce his compositions, which would combine the advantages of copper etching with the convenience of printing in an ordinary printing press, and therefore would surpass etching in terms of cheapness and the abundance of equivalent prints obtained, Shishkin undertook a number of zincography experiments, or, as it was called, raised etching. The most successful of these experiments appeared in the Bee magazine, and were, without a doubt, the best among her illustrations. Yielding in many respects to real etching engravings, they are nevertheless very interesting, because the artist himself appears in them, and not in the interpretation of the xylograph, which always more or less distorts the drawing reproduced by him. With his inquisitiveness and perseverance, Shishkin, of course, would have continued to work on the development of his convex etching, if the invention and the latest successes of photozincotyping had not made such a thing redundant. Afraid to go against the modesty of the respected professor, we will not spread in praise of his talent as an engraver. Let's just say that if he is one of the first among Russian landscape painters, then as an engraver-landscape painter he is the only and unprecedented one in Russia. Moreover, among the aquafortists of Western Europe, so rich in masters of this kind, there are only a few rivals to him in the art of transferring plants in engraving, especially dense forests, pines and spruces. If he lived and worked in one of such centers of artistic activity as Paris, London or Vienna, or if he took care of distributing his prints in general in foreign lands, his fame would become widespread.

But, unfortunately, he did not know how or did not want to seek a reputation outside the borders of his homeland. He was an ardent patriot and contented himself with being known and respected by his compatriots. Among the latter, at present, only a few pay tribute to him for his engravings - ardent art lovers and passionate collectors of Russian prints, but the time will come - we are sure of this - when Shishkin's etchings will be highly valued by a wide circle of people with a delicate taste, equally sensitive to artistry and large, painted pictures, and relatively small, one-color prints from engraving boards. In any case, the name of Shishkin will eventually occupy one of the prominent pages in the dictionary of the still few Russian peintres-graveurs. Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin is complex in the same way as the "kondo" pines are harmonious, which marvelously rose from apparently barren sands. A.F. Marx did very well that, to the collection of the above 60 etchings, published in 1894, he also attached a portrait executed in the same way by the artist himself. He perfectly conveys not only the appearance of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin - he speaks to your soul, you understand the person - by calm, intent and thoughtful eyes you will recognize his manner of observing and peering into the secret beauties of the modest nature of our North. This is a living face - at once making you, an outside observer, an acquaintance of the artist. And here we see a black forest immersed in twilight and coolness, with a quiet babble of a key in a ravine, with a fiery and blurry sunset of the sun's rays penetrating here through the bindings of peaks, and in the midst of this freshness and silence - the Master Artist, such as he is now in front of us in his penetrating etching.

"The poet of nature" - exactly. A poet who thinks in her images, deciphering her beauty where a mere mortal will pass indifferently, indifferently. For Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, as for a real poet, there is no great or small in his native element. Blades of grass fluttering in the wind, flowers rising above the grass, broad and dusty burdock leaves are enough to create pictures full of true charm and power in his creative imagination. The smoke that creeps in the distance between the trunks of pines, the gaps of the sky through the dormant branches - all this speaks to his heart, and in the interpretation of the artist to ours. You see that it all lives, feels, glows, breathes under his brush and pencil. You yourself are drawn away from the stuffy, noisy and bustling city to the majestic and solemn green kingdom with its calm speech. His "Forest Flowers" - after all, this is the idyll itself, conveyed in a living way. A tiny drawing - but you feel its vital truth, you, together with this poet of nature, understand that there is not and should not be small and insignificant in it. A forest stream (etching No. 2) flows a little in the stones. Trees are silent all around, keeping freshness in their leaves. Grass, filled with its life-giving water, spreads magnificently around. It is done so quietly and sweetly in the soul - as if the artist transferred the mystical peace and reverent silence of his beloved forest into it. To give a complete understanding of the collection of etchings, one would have to enumerate all of its numbers. Some compulsion is needed over oneself in order to speak not about everyone. Well, how to get past, for example, this incomparable corner of the forest (“On the felling”, No. 5) at night. The dark sky is starry. Full of some unsolved mystery, it seems to you behind the black trunks of trees, some of them have already fallen under the axe. Far from the depths of the forest, a fire glows. And the night is silent all around, and behind the peaks of the motionless forest giants, its mysterious constellations slowly and solemnly make their usual revolution over the earth shrouded in darkness. It's a clear day - the stream meanders capriciously and disappears in the distance in a slightly distinguishable twist. White clouds full of sunlight have risen high above the corner of the parted forest, and on their haze the freely spread wings of birds blacken. And again the night is winter, moonlight. The stars are a little warm. There is so much air between these snow-covered pines and firs. In the distance, against the dark background of the sky, they only seem to be. It’s as if hard-to-distinguish phantoms stand there, and in front of you is a clearing, bathed in the dreamy light of the moon, through the puffs of the snow that has showered them, the stems of plants left over from summer stick out, and in the white thin crust they turn black, motionless and lifeless. Far, far away between the trees, other clearings, slightly touched by the moon, glow dimly. How good are all these little "poems in pictures" of our poet of nature. Look at this sea. The cliff is slightly covered with the earth of a stone shore, a mighty tree clung to it, put its strong roots into its crevices and luxuriantly leafed under the sun over the half-air distance. Seagulls hover below. The movement of bottomless waters seems to be - you do not see it with your eyes, but you feel it. Further - further the sail turns white. Where is he rushing through the azure desert? And here is a pensive, full of light and beauty southern night. The black and gloomy rocks of Gurzuf break off in masses that frighten the imagination - again into the same slightly undulating boundless sea. The moon, slightly touched by a narrow cloud, was reflected in its depths. Silence, solitude, space - only this stone and shimmering waters say something to your soul without words. And here is another (No. 37) - the ledge of Ayu-Dag behind the magnificent southern pine - a wonderful example of the creativity of this nature. The sea lies calmly in the powerful embrace of the rocks. It does not worry and does not seem to fall asleep. Hot. The sun is reflected by the clouds, some black birds are flying above them. Are they harbingers of a storm? But how little we still know our best artists. Indeed, one begins to believe that the artist of the provincial theater, after The Inspector General, who wished to immediately go to St. Petersburg to shake hands with Gogol, is not an anecdote. After all, many literate people consider Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin exclusively the author of "pines" and northern forest deserts. Meanwhile, under his pencil and brush, the distant warm sea also lives and resurrects before us, the powerful Crimean rocks rise (No. 36, 58). The very stone in his hands is full of a strange, somewhat gloomy beauty. The sun beats through the cliff into another. It burns in front of us, all painted with mysterious cracks. The rock ahead casts a sharp shadow over him, and in the gap between them you feel dusk and coolness in the scorching afternoon. The stone splendor of the mountain valleys is masterfully conveyed. I.I. Shishkin's nights breathe. With our poet of nature, next to skill and technique, there is something that is not often found even among real poets. With a certain image, one way or another speaking to your soul, next to it are sketched, as if in passing, lines that you cannot distinguish at first glance. Admiring these graceful corners of God's wonderful world for the second and third time, you will feel in them a new beauty, a charm you have missed. All these "On the Forest Boundary" (No. 16), "Polyanka" (No. 20), "Edge" (No. 21), "Pines" (No. 27) and many others, in addition to their amazing fidelity to nature, immerse you in the world of elusive sensations. Have you ever stopped by the forest in the shade on a sunny day and thought? Vague but wondrous impressions run in your soul like shadows from clouds. You go into dreamy contemplation of beauty that somehow does not fall into your hands. That's exactly what I experienced when looking at these inspirational drawings. Especially two of them: "Dense Forest" (No. 26) and "Pines" (No. 27) - how much power, strength, depth they have ... A look in this kingdom of tree trunks goes God knows where, and where darkness thickens , he still guesses new and new silhouettes and images. And the night over the sea! Somewhere, far, far away, the moon was reflected in the water at the very horizon... Here, on the shore, near the black trees sharply outlined in the darkness, there is a fire and people around it... One longs to breathe in freedom, freshness, admire this beauty .. Whenever it becomes especially boring, and a dreary and stingy winter day frowns outside the windows, open these etchings and, together with the "poet of nature" Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, go to his enchanted kingdom, get lost in its forests, breathe plenty of sunlight and warmly, listen to the voice of the forest peaks and the surf of the royal sea, dreaming of it on moonlit nights - and, returning to the boring city reality, feel refreshed and cheerful. You need to know the painstaking production of etching to understand how much work and effort went into this edition. A little inattention, absent-mindedness - and start all over again. In order to achieve the results that this publication gives, it was necessary to persevere and pursue one's goal for a long time, to overcome thousands of obstacles. How many magnificent successful planks had to be redone again, because, in the opinion of a demanding artist, they did not quite convey a certain mood. Telling in the preface how Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin worked on this, the publisher says: “He not only printed sheets, but also varied them to infinity, painted on the board with paint, put new shadows, made other spots, stars, moonlight ... All in the excitement of work, strong, confident, he was really a great master, reminiscent of the artists of the past. The appearance of etchings in the world is not only a successful publishing enterprise, but also a major merit of their author. One can study Russia itself in these artistic sketches with all the endless variety of its characteristic features, contrasts, subtle and elusive for others details, which are convex and clear in the work of our “poet of nature”. All etchings performed by Shishkin D. Rovinsky has up to a hundred; he points, moreover, to 68 original lithographs and 15 zincographic experiments of this master. A. Beggrov, in 1884 - 1885, published in two series a collection of 24 phototype photographs from charcoal drawings made for him by Shishkin, and F. Bulgakov “Album of Russian Painting. Paintings and drawings by I.I. Shishkin" (St. Petersburg, 1892); A. Palchikov “List of printed sheets of I.I. Shishkin" (St. Petersburg, 1885) and D. Rovinsky "Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engravers of the 16th - 19th Centuries" (vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1885).

In addition to 60 etchings published by A.F. Marx in 1894, here is a list of individual editions of the works of the famous artist:

1. Shishkin I.I. Engravings on copper Shishkin. Prize of the island for the promotion of arts in 1873. St. Petersburg, 1873 Cover, 11 sheets. engravings. In folder. 63 cm.

2. Shishkin I.I. 25 copper engravings a l'eau - fortes from 73 to 78. I. Shishkin. Spb., Marx. 1878 Grav. tit. l., 24 l.l. etchings. In folder. 45 cm. Printed with the participation of the artist I. Volkonsky.

3. Shishkin I.I. Etchings by I.I. Shishkin. 1885-1886 Published by A. Palchikov. Spb., Own. author. 1886 1 l. titled., 26 sh. engravings. In folder. 44 cm

4. Shishkin I.I. Sketches with pen on stone. 6 lithographs + lithograph. region St. Petersburg, May 6, 1868.

5. Souvenirs du Japon par M. Paul Mukhanoff. Litogr. Par Chichkine. Sankt-Petersbourg, 1862. 16 plts.

6. Vysheslavtsev A. Essays in pen and pencil from the circumnavigation of the world in 1857-60. From 27 lit. drawings. Edition M.O. Wolf. SPb.-Moscow, 1867. 14 drawings drawn by Shishkin on stone, from sketches by A. Vysheslavtsev.

N. TOLSTAYA, scientific secretary of the State Tretyakov Gallery, E. GERASIMOVA, head. department of scientific and educational programs.

Until January 20, 2008, the State Tretyakov Gallery held an exhibition dedicated to the 175th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Russian landscape painter Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832-1898). The exhibition featured more than 200 works from the Tretyakov Gallery, the Russian Museum, from museum and private collections in Russia and foreign countries. In addition to the traditional exposition, in which this time the master's graphic works, drawings and engravings took a large place, there were also not quite ordinary objects - a magic lantern, a photographic apparatus and a device for viewing photographs. all these items stored in the Polytechnic Museum became part of a special didactic (from the Greek didaskein - to teach) exposition zone called "Shishkin's workshop". The section is intended for an active understanding of what the work of a realist artist was like in the era of discoveries in the field of photography, optics and technology, for the knowledge of the creative process, which Shishkin was very closely connected with the novelties and inventions of that era. Three themes are presented in the showcases of this section of the exhibition - technology, nature and optics.

Science and life // Illustrations

"Kama". 1882 Canvas, oil. Private collection.

"Winter". 1890 Canvas, oil. State Russian Museum.

G. G. Myasoedov. "First impression. Portrait of I. I. Shishkin. 1891 Canvas, oil. Penza Regional Art Gallery. K. A. Savitsky.

"Noon. Moscow suburbs. Bratsevo". 1866 Etude. Canvas, oil. Astrakhan State Art Gallery named after B. M. Kustodiev.

Exposition of the didactic section "Shishkin's Workshop".

"Coltsfoot". 1874 State Tretyakov Gallery. The drawing is reproduced in the technique of convex etching as an appendix to the magazine "Bee".

"Shishkin's Workshop". Fragment of the exposition.

"In the wild north..." 1890 Brown paper, sauce, charcoal. State Tretyakov Gallery.

"Debri". 1881 Canvas, oil. Acquired by P. M. Tretyakov. State Tretyakov Gallery.

"Three Oaks". 1887 Etched stroke, aquatint. State Tretyakov Gallery.

"Break". 1878 Etched stroke, aquatint. State Tretyakov Gallery.

"Shishkin's Workshop". Lithographic stone and samples of prints from it.

Cover of the album "Etchings by Shishkin". 1886 State Tretyakov Gallery.

"White flowers". 1877 From the collection of P. M. Tretyakov. State Tretyakov Gallery.

Ivan Shishkin was born in the city of Yelabuga on the banks of the Kama, grew up among the Volga landscapes, studied painting at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, then at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. Having received in 1860 a large gold medal for the landscape “View on the island of Valaam. Cucco area”, the young painter was awarded a trip abroad as a pensioner of the Academy. And in 1862, Shishkin went to Europe - first to Germany, from there - to Switzerland, France, Holland and Belgium. In 1864 he settled in Düsseldorf.

In the 19th century, Düsseldorf was one of the main artistic centers in Germany. In 1819, the Academy was founded there, which was successively headed by the artists P. Cornelius and V. Shadov. One of the trends that developed in Düsseldorf was a realistic landscape, which attracted the young artist. The result of a short, but extremely important stay for Shishkin abroad was the grandiose and masterfully written "View in the vicinity of Dusseldorf", which brought the artist the title of academician of the Russian Academy of Arts.

Returning to Russia, Shishkin quickly integrated into the artistic situation of his time, became close to the Artel of Artists, became one of the first members of the Association of the Wanderers, participated in its exhibitions, starting from the very first, in 1871. Shishkin showed her the painting “Pine Forest. Mast forest in the Vyatka province.

Almost simultaneously, he joins the Society of Russian aquafortists. Throughout his life, Shishkin has been drawing and engraving. He experiments a lot with etching, working on the same board several times, achieving the effect of a completely different mood in different prints. The graphic heritage of the artist is widely and almost for the first time so fully presented at the exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery.

By the 1870s, Shishkin had already arrived as a mature master. And ahead of him are his main, most famous masterpieces: Noon in the Outskirts of Moscow, Morning in a Pine Forest, Ship Grove. In Russia, he becomes close to many artists, sometimes becoming for them not just a friend, but also a teacher. I. N. Kramskoy wrote in one of his letters to P. M. Tretyakov: “... I affirm that Shishkin is a wonderful teacher. He is able to take 5, 6 young people, go with them to the village, go to sketches, i.e. work with them together. After all, that's all you need." Among the students and artists who were influenced by Shishkin are F. A. Vasiliev, A. N. Schilder, E. E. Volkov. One of the last students of the great landscape painter, already outside the walls of the Academy, was the first professional artist of Altai G. I. Gurkin (Choros-Gurke). It was with Gurkin that he studied on the eve of his death.

Ivan Ivanovich was not just a talented artist, but a great worker, he believed that labor was the main component of the artist's activity. In one of Shishkin's notebooks it is written: "A person can do a lot if he devotes himself to work in his chosen field, and will not do anything if he is going to do something great for a century - the more difficult, the more glorious the field." While working, sitting at the easel, on March 8 (20), 1898, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin died suddenly.

Many of Shishkin's ideas, including the idea of ​​a close connection between the artist and the scientific discoveries and technologies of the era, migrated into the 20th century. Let us return to that section of the exhibition of I. I. Shishkin, which showed him not as a landscape painter - the author of paintings familiar to everyone, but as an artist closely associated with modernity.

An inquisitive and practical man, Shishkin enthusiastically studied the technical innovations of his time, and was especially interested in various ways of obtaining an image. In an effort to create better and cheaper reproductions of his works, he mastered the classic printing techniques - etching and lithography, improved them with author's techniques.

The artist began to engage in lithography while still at the Academy. Lithography (literally - "drawing on a stone") made it possible to reproduce drawings inexpensively and with high quality, conveying all the features of the original. Despite the fact that there are no Shishkin's lithographs in the exposition, samples of lithographic stones with impressions are presented in the didactic zone, which give an idea of ​​this technique.

Shishkin-etcher is widely present in the main exhibition - both as separate sheets and works that the artist himself has combined into albums. In the didactic area, next to the original etchings by I. I. Shishkin from various albums stored in the library of the Tretyakov Gallery, the materials used to create the etching are shown (from the French eau-forte - literally “strong water”; this was the name for nitric acid, which was pickled drawing on metal): tools, metal etching boards and samples of prints from them. Particularly interesting are the so-called different states of etchings, in which Shishkin's tireless work on the same landscape, the same board is visible, when, thanks to a few extra strokes, day turns into night, birds, stones, trees and other elements of the landscape appear and disappear.

In the didactic area of ​​the exhibition, a sample of the so-called convex etching, an invention of Shishkin himself, is also shown. One of the founders of the Society of Russian Etchers and the father of the artist Konstantin Somov, A. I. Somov, wrote in the article “Shishkin as an engraver”: an ordinary printing press, and therefore would surpass etching in terms of cheapness and the abundance of equivalent prints obtained, Shishkin undertook a number of experiments in zincography, or, as it was called, convex etching ... "At the exhibition, this author's invention of Shishkin is represented by the sheet "Forest", reproduced in 1875 in the magazine "Bee".

However, the convex etching did not take root, as a new, more advanced method of reproduction based on the photoprocess appeared - phototype. I. I. Shishkin contributed to the dissemination of this technology in Russia. In 1884, the publisher A.I. Beggrov, specifically to demonstrate the reproduction possibilities of phototype, ordered Shishkin a series of easel charcoal drawings, published in the album “I. I. Shishkin. Charcoal drawings reproduced by the method of phototype ... ".

The artist was also engaged in photography itself. Back in the 1860s, while abroad as a pensioner of the Academy of Arts, he ordered photographs from his sketches and drawings and attached them to the reports sent to St. Petersburg. Since the 1870s, photography has taken an increasing place in the artist's work, he begins to take pictures himself. In the summer of 1874, I. N. Kramskoy complained in a letter to K. A. Savitsky that Shishkin was “busy with photography, studying, taking pictures, but not a single sketch or painting.”

A camera for a realist artist who seeks to accurately capture nature becomes no less important a piece of equipment than a sketchbook or sketchbook. In addition to the supporting role of photography, which was used by many artists of that time, Shishkin attached independent significance to this new art form not only as a way to reproduce his works, but also as a means of studying nature. The use of photographic technology has become an original feature of the pedagogical system of I. I. Shishkin.

“I want to give you a fundamental piece of advice, on which all the wisdom of studying nature or nature, as they say, is based, as well as the secrets of art and especially the technique of painting, is photography. She is the only mediator between nature and the artist and the strictest teacher, and if you reasonably understand this and study with energy what you feel weak in, then I vouch for your speedy success... learn to write and air, i.e. clouds, and trees on different planes, and distance, and water, in a word, everything you need. Here you can quietly study the perspective (aerial and linear) and the laws of solar lighting and so on. and so on. If you understand this and follow my advice, then you will quickly learn to write and draw, and most importantly, develop and ennoble your eye and so on ...

But in practice it is done like this: a good photograph is taken according to your taste or only a part of it that you need, and in order to see and understand well, you need to take a magnifying glass or a magnifying glass. From a photograph, in addition to drawing with a pencil, you need to write with paint, in one tone, in the same tone as the photograph. On the palette, make up the tone with a spatula, put the darkest one first; then halftones and so on until the lightest, and all these tones in groups should be ready in advance on the palette (the contour must be outlined in ink or ink) ”(from a letter from I. I. Shishkin to I. A. Utkin, St. Petersburg, 1896).

The didactic area of ​​the exhibition presents samples of photographic equipment from the second half of the 19th century from the Polytechnic Museum: a small camera for the pavilion and the road and a reproduction camera, which made it possible to convert the negative into a slide for the magic lantern. Such objects could well have been used by Shishkin.

The magic lantern is one of the most popular domestic leisure activities of the time. This is an optical device that projects an enlarged image onto a screen. I. I. Shishkin was the first to decide to adapt the projection of photography for teaching students. In 1897, returning after a break to official teaching at the Academy of Arts, he specifically stipulated the need for a magic lantern there with a screen on which the photograph would be drawn enlarged so that the landscape was presented almost in full size. At the exhibition, this role is played by a modern projector, hidden next to an authentic magic lantern of that era.

In the book of memoirs of N. A. Kiselyov, the son of landscape painter A. A. Kiselyov, “Among the Wanderers. Memoirs of the artist's son "is a curious evidence:" In winter, due to the impossibility of writing from nature, he (Shishkin. - ed.) forced his students to make drawings from transparencies projected onto a large canvas, made from his forest paintings and engravings. Some condemned such a pedagogical method, but those who could patiently peer into his picturesque (oil) paintings of forest corners and feel the charm of an exceptionally talented wildlife, saturated to the limit with wonderful details, admired and learned a lot.

The artist A. T. Komarova recalled that Shishkin “advised the students who came to him that they learn from photography in the winter the lower technique of landscape and in the summer they studied only paints, not embarrassed by the interpretation of the matter of the subject and the very methods of painting; he was very pleased if anyone understood him and followed his advice; he was confident in the results of studying nature from photography, having checked it on himself, Kosmakov, Schilder, and others.

The essence of Shishkin's creative method was a deep study of nature. “I think that this is the only person in our country who knows the landscape in a scientific way,” I. N. Kramskoy wrote about him. The artist himself, in the preface to the catalog of the exhibition at the Imperial Academy of Arts of sketches, drawings, etchings, zincographs and lithographs, wrote: “In the matter of art - whether it be painting, architecture or another branch - practice is of great importance. It alone enables the artist to understand the mass of raw material that nature provides. Therefore, the study of nature is necessary for every artist, and especially for a landscape painter.

It is interesting to compare the "botanical" sketches, drawings and engravings of Shishkin presented at the exhibition - for example, "Snot-grass", "Mother-and-stepmother" - with herbaria, illustrations in botanical books of the first half of the 19th century from the library of Moscow University and botanical photography of the second half a century. Obviously, the artist was interested in more complex problems than achieving botanical accuracy. As a great artist, Shishkin, observing nature, overcame the "dead accuracy of details." In this sense, photography, which the artist used very widely, was not for him a model that could be thoughtlessly copied. “Here, in part, the degree of a person’s talent is known: a mediocre one will slavishly copy all its unnecessary details from a photograph, and a person with flair will take what he needs,” Shishkin himself wrote to one of his students.

Despite Shishkin's interest in photography, nothing could replace nature for him. Curiosity towards nature prompted the artist to travel a lot. Spring was a time of long trips (the Volga region, the Karelian Isthmus, Olonets, Vologda and Tver provinces, Belarus, Narva), and in the summer he usually worked near St. and others. What these places looked like in the time of Shishkin can be imagined from old postcards exhibited in the windows of the didactic exposition along with geographical maps.

The development of railway communication in the second half of the 19th century made it easier to move around the country. The exposition includes a copy of the Map of Russian Railways compiled in 1862. Shishkin spent the summer of 1879 with his family and the artists Volkov and Schilder in the Crimea, where "they climbed to work in the mountain forests, wrote in the monastery of Kozma and Demyan, from Alupka on a cart, like gypsies, they moved to Gurzuf ...". In the library of the Tretyakov Gallery, there were old guides to the Crimea, containing descriptions of flora and fauna, maps, train schedules, and other manuals useful for the traveler of the late 19th century.

Some of Shishkin's travels can be called real geographical expeditions. So, in May 1890, the artist, together with the photographer Evgeny Petrovich Vishnyakov (1841-1916), undertook a journey to the sources of the Volga. Colonel, full member of the Russian Geographical Society and member of the photographic department of the Russian Technical Society, author of the book "The Application of Photography to Travel", Vishnyakov worked in the genre of photographic landscape. He accompanied Shishkin more than once on long trips and learned a lot from him. Shishkin participated in choosing the shooting point for his landscapes, gave advice when viewing pictures. The journey to the sources of the Volga was not at all easy: “The paucity of sketches from the upper reaches of the Volga was due to not quite favorable weather during the trip (it was cold), and especially extremely bad roads to travel to the upper reaches. It was necessary with great difficulty to move through swamps, swamps and mud with the almost complete desertion of this side ”(from the preface to the catalog of the exhibition at the Imperial Academy of Arts of studies, drawings, etchings, zincographs and lithographs by I. I. Shishkin in 1891). The memory of this expedition was preserved in the album of E. P. Vishnyakov “Sources of the Volga. Sketches with pen and photography”, published in 1893 with a cover drawn by Shishkin.

But the first experience of cooperation between the artist and the photographer belongs to a much earlier period. In 1869, Andrei Osipovich Karelin (1837-1906), a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, opened an atelier called "Photography and Painting" in Nizhny Novgorod. In the summer of 1870, I. I. Shishkin worked in Nizhny Novgorod, coloring photographic views of the city with watercolors commissioned by Karelin, who was commissioned by the Nizhny Novgorod nobility to compile an album to present to Alexander II. The exposition presents a sheet from the album of A. O. Karelin and I. I. Shishkin "Nizhny Novgorod", stored in the State Russian Museum. The participation of the artist in this forgotten project is all the more interesting because Karelin was one of the outstanding masters of photography in the second half of the 19th century. Artistic talent was combined in him with the talent of an inventor. With the help of additional optical lenses, he was the first to obtain a clear image in several plans on one negative. The photographs “Riding on the Black Pond”, “Lovers of Engravings” and “Girls with Albums” make it possible to appreciate the merits of his photographs in terms of conveying spatial depth and light-air effects.

The anniversary exhibition of Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, thanks to the didactic zone in the exposition, allowed specialists to pose and partly comprehend the problem of the relationship between painting and photography in the 19th century, which to some extent changes the idea of ​​​​how realism is connected with photography and other scientific and technical inventions of that era.

And the audience got the opportunity to see textbook paintings, printed graphics and reproductions in one space, in one context, to be a little closer to the audience of the era of positivism, which is characterized by a fascination with the optical effects of magnification, refraction, stereoscopy. You can see the world through the optics of the second half of the 19th century by looking into the eyepieces of a stereoscope, where a stereo pair (doubled image) creates the effect of a real volume, and by examining the landscape of I. I. Shishkin through the graphoscope lens. At the exhibition, one could also see the magical effect of light painting - an inverted reflection of nature, glowing on the frosted glass of a large camera.

There were no indifferent visitors among the visitors of the exhibition. Shishkin “is in love with all the originality of every tree, every bush, every grass, and like a loving son, cherishing every wrinkle on his mother’s face, he, with filial devotion, with all the severity of deep sincere love, conveys everything in this dear element of forests to him, everything to the last little things, with a truly classical skill, ”wrote art historian A.V. Prakhov. The love of the artist is transmitted to the audience.

I. I. Shishkin (1832 - 1895)

"I hope the time will come when all Russian nature, alive and spiritual, will look from the canvases of Russian artists"

I. I. Shishkin

In the brilliant galaxy of Russian landscape painters, I. I. Shishkin holds one of the most important and honorable places. He was the largest landscape painter among the Wanderers of 1870-1880, a prominent representative and exponent of democratic realism in landscape painting. Shishkin devoted all his great talent, colossal capacity for work and perseverance to the development of the national theme in the landscape, the creation of truthful images of Russian nature, mainly the Russian forest, of which he was an incomparable connoisseur and lover. With his work, Shishkin affirmed the beauty of Russian nature, showed how meaningful her images can be. He taught to love native nature and to feel it deeper.

Like all Wanderers, Shishkin saw the task of his art in a true reflection of the characteristic and typical phenomena of reality, without any idealization and embellishment. But the artist's point of view, his assessment of this reality, affected the choice of subjects and their interpretation. It was a look at nature through the eyes of the people, an assessment of its phenomena from the point of view of working people. The democratic artist, Shishkin, in his work, as it were, clearly expressed the thought of Chernyshevsky: "a person looks at nature through the eyes of the owner, and on earth it also seems beautiful to him that with which happiness, the contentment of human life is connected."

Shishkin chose for his works mainly such motifs in which it was possible to show the wealth, abundance and power of Russian nature, its benefits to man. He depicts mighty coniferous and oak forests, the vast expanse of a flat landscape, fat earing fields. In a calm, courageous appearance full of simple and clear beauty, the native land appears in the paintings, drawings and engravings of Shishkin.

Shishkin entered the history of Russian art primarily as a master of painting. His canvases are widely popular and invariably attract the attention of the general public. Shishkin's paintings are well known and highly valued by the Soviet people. But the artist's graphic works, his drawings, engravings, lithographs have no less artistic significance. Shishkin was one of the best draftsmen and the largest engraver-etcher of his time. None of the Russian landscape painters of that era played such an outstanding, in many ways decisive role as Shishkin's, none of the Russian painters of the second half of the 19th century paid so much attention and time to engraving, was not such a master of etching as Shishkin.

He began etching while still at school at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture in 1853, but he became especially interested in this engraving method from the beginning of the 1870s, entering the newly founded (in 1871) Society of Russian aquafortists. Etching attracted Shishkin with the relative speed of execution, the flexibility of technique, and the combination of a graphic linear beginning with a rich pictorial play of light and shadow. In etching, he worked mainly with a needle, sometimes using some other techniques characteristic of etching - soft varnish, refinement with aquatint.

Etching - intaglio printing technique; printing is done on a manual machine. Attaching great importance to etching, Shishkin made experiments to create a special, as he called it, "convex" etching on the principle of zincography, which could be printed in large quantities mechanically, by machine. These experiments did not give completely positive results, but they are characteristic of a democratic artist who sought to make his art popular and widely accessible. Along with engraving, Shishkin was also engaged in lithography.

Strict and precise drawing underlies all of Shishkin's art, not only as a draftsman, but also as a painter. This meaning of drawing and the clear transmission of objectivity in Shishkin's works are closely related to the nature of his work, in which the exact study of nature "in a scientific way", as Kramskoy said, formed the basis. All landscape painters of the realistic school, contemporaries of Shishkin, strove for an objective transfer of nature. But while A. K. Savrasova or F. A. Vasiliev were especially fascinated by the sincerity and lyricism of the images of Russian nature, and in their works they sought to convey the poetic experience of nature, Shishkin saw his task in narrating about nature and its life, narrating simple, calm and very sober. He acts, therefore, as a kind of "everyday writer of nature." These goals are served by his strict drawing, accurately depicting objects in all their detail and fixing in artistic images the results of the study of nature. "Nature must be sought in all its simplicity - the drawing must follow it in all its whims of form," said Shishkin.

Shishkin's drawings are easily divided into two groups: numerous natural ones and relatively rare compositional ones. Among the first, we see both long, detailed, and quick sketches. But both of them are only etude material for paintings or compositional worked out drawings with the same, as in the paintings, a complete image of nature. As for the engraving sheets of the artist, in most cases they are original and independent compositions of great figurative content and high artistic beauty of execution.

Looking at Shishkin's drawings and etchings, you can clearly see how attentively and penetratingly, with love and patience, he studied nature in all its large and small manifestations, from mighty trees to thin openwork fern leaves, from proud clouds in the high sky to modest forest grasses. and flowers.

Characteristic in this regard is the drawing "Oak" reproduced here (1882), (ill. 14). Carefully and accurately, really as if in a "scientific way" the artist conveys the powerful volumes of the old trunk, all the cracks in the bark, all the flaws left by time and bad weather, conveys the huge sprawling twisted branches and twigs that cover their lush patterned foliage. But following the curve of the branches and twigs, you feel how the artist was fascinated by the beauty and grace of their forms, the rhythm of the curves, in which he tried to read the story of how this tree grew and lived. He seems to become his biographer. Careful study and a living sense of nature are inextricably linked in this narrative; here the simplest and most ordinary object acquires deep content and expressive beauty. This living feeling of nature, the artist's love and interest in it, make his precise sketches free from deadly naturalistic herbarism. The small etching "Forest Flowers" (1873) attracts not only with its amazing accuracy and clarity of all details, but also with a loving experience of nature. It seems that the landscape painter peered into these poor and modest flowers, grass and bushes with such close attention and cordial interest with which an attentive and subtle portrait painter seeks to read the character and story of a person’s life in facial features (ill. 10).

This meaningful perception of nature, loving peering into it, the ability to see and capture the quiet "life of objects" in nature, helped the artist in the most difficult task - to "understand" the complexity of the forest landscape: in all this abundance and interweaving of branches, one after another going "layers "foliage, in a heap of mosses, trunks, dry branches, windbreak, grasses and flowers. The ability to understand all this perfectly, to see and convey the peculiar order of the relationship of individual objects, is clearly evidenced by the drawing "Firs" (1894), which conveys details with amazing clarity without loss of generality (ill. 13). In order to depict the wilderness in such a way, as we see it in the etching "Taiga" (1880), one must not only be able to draw remarkably well, have the fidelity of the eye and the firmness of the hand developed by the technique of a finely honed line, but besides all this, one must perfectly know the objects depicted - ate , stones, mosses, etc. One must be deeply imbued with the understanding of this forest thicket, breathe its heavy, moist air more than once, enter into its seemingly simple, but so complex life, hidden from the eyes of man. It is precisely the fact that any “object” depicted here lives its own life, “behaves” in the drawing, as in life, and allows you to depict the most complex motif so clearly and simply, instilling a sense of deep vitality and fidelity to the image. The etching "Taiga" is filled with the harsh beauty of nature itself (ill. 18).

Shishkin was a remarkable master of the most difficult: drawing with a pen, which did not allow for corrections and alterations. With this technique of pen drawing, he sometimes executed large sheets with a complex image. The pen drawing is somewhat reminiscent of needle etching, when the artist, as it were, draws with a needle on the varnish with which the copper board is covered. Already during his studies at the Academy, Shishkin's pen drawings were sometimes mistaken for an excellent engraving. In essence, Shishkin's lithographs, executed with a pen and collected in the album "Etudes with a Pen on a Stone" (St. Petersburg, 1868), are also a kind of pen drawing. The lithograph "Oak" (1867) gives a good idea of ​​the skill and variety of strokes in Shishkin's drawings when rendering foliage, how the artist creates the impression of drawing each leaf with simple "brackets", and depicts grass with straight strokes and strokes. He also skillfully creates the impression of lightness and deep shadows on the background (ill. 3). And in a pencil drawing, we see the same richness and variety of short energetic lines and strokes in the transfer of various objects.

In a large drawing with a pen "Apiary" (1884), with the smallest detailing of particulars, the artist managed to preserve the whole, the general. By conveying the volume and materiality of objects - beehives in the foreground, bushes in the background and pines in the depths, on a hillock, Shishkin here gives a spatial and very plastic sense of relief. The viewer, as it were, follows into the depths of the landscape, going visually from the bottom of the picture up (ill. 11). It should also be noted that with the fineness of the strokes, due to the detail in the transfer of objects, Shishkin managed not to "clog" such a large drawing, to avoid lethargy and monotony in the arrangement of light and shadow. The ability to combine the refinement of details and the completeness of the image with the unity of the landscape characterizes Shishkin's best paintings.

The beauty of the lines and the play of strokes in the transfer of vegetation are especially felt in the etchings. Embedded in metal and convexly imprinted on paper, the line receives a special rapping here, and the interlacing and crossing of lines - almost jewelry subtlety and beauty. At the same time, the line does not at all lose its pictorial significance. Shishkin had a good feeling and knew how to use the depth of dark color and the sonority of highlighted places, that glow of white paper, which we see in engravings. Working with etching, applying deep re-etching in the right places, he was remarkably able to convey the quivering play of sunlight in the depths of the forest. So in the etching "Cows in the Forest" (1873), the play of light and shadows, as if the sparkle of sunlit foliage next to dark trunks, well conveys the atmosphere of the forest. Perceiving this etching, you well understand the charm of merging the expressiveness of the image with the artistic beauty of the means of its image, as if a special "melody" of the engraving (ill. 5).

The second half of the 19th century knows many good draftsmen. But only in Shishkin do we find at that time a special interest in what could be called "graphism".

Shishkin drew and engraved a lot all his life, because, naturally, his creative path was reflected in graphic works with the same clarity and certainty as in picturesque paintings. Shishkin's graphic heritage makes it possible to trace the entire path of the formation and development of his realistic creative method and contains excellent examples of the artist's achievements in creating a truthful and meaningful artistic image of Russian nature. All this is so clearly reflected in Shishkin's drawings and engravings that even the small amount that was possible to reproduce here testifies to this with sufficient clarity.

The lithograph "Slum" (1860), depicting a view on the island of Valaam, is a typical example of the artist's early works during his studies at the Academy of Arts (ill. 2). Valaam in the 1850s was a favorite place for young artists to work, and the Shishkin Academy sent them there twice - in the summer of 1858 and 1859. The reproduced lithography, as it were, sums up the impressions and sketches of the artist on location during these two years, as they were summed up by two picturesque paintings - views of Valaam, for which Shishkin received a gold medal in 1860 and the right to travel abroad. Already in this early lithography, the artist’s close attention and love for nature are evident, but they still manifest themselves in a naive form of passion for small things, individual objects and their details. The view as a whole is still constructed only as a simple combination of these particulars. Hence the clutter of the image, the disconnection of plans, the diversity of contrasts between dark and light places. This reproduction of nature is very characteristic of the work of youth in the 1850s. The young A.K. Savrasov and M.K. Klodt painted their first landscapes in such a naive and somewhat sentimental-romantic way. Features of romance, coming from the school tradition, are reflected in the lithograph "Slum" and in the choice of motive - a combination of huge stones and thickets - in the interpretation that gives this virgin nature a kind of intimacy and "coziness" by the transmission of gentle sunlight.

The traditional methods of drawing on colored paper, with tinting with white and with pencil blotches, were reflected in the complex technique of this lithography, which is a peculiar combination of a wide variety of techniques, up to scratching. This testifies to the diligent study by the young artist of the technique of lithography and the great successes he achieved in mastering its visual means and possibilities. Therefore, the review of such works by Shishkin, his first teacher Mokritsky, was fair: "These are the best landscape lithographs that have hitherto been printed here in Russia."

Romantic moments are also felt in the drawings of the 1860s, executed both in Russia and during his stay abroad. This is a period of searching for a young artist, expanding his horizons. In his striving for a realistic and meaningful landscape, Shishkin fills it with an external story, a narrative transmitted both by the actions of figures of people and animals, and by the reproduction of a complex state of nature. Characteristic in this regard is the drawing "Shepherd with a flock" (chic 4). The romantic motif of the cloud, the effect of sunlight and the dynamics of the image are already comprehended by Shishkin in a completely realistic way, while the artist strives to "tell" the viewer as much as possible.

This complexity of the story, even external plot characterize those paintings by Shishkin of the late 1860s, in which he already gives clearly expressed national Russian landscape images, such as "Cutting a Forest" (1867, Tretyakov Gallery). Similar paintings by Shishkin correspond to the etching reproduced here "Stream in the Forest" (1870). We see the same complexity of the motif, in which a detailed, but still superficially descriptive characterization of the landscape is manifested (ill. 6).

The further evolution of Shishkin goes along the line of overcoming this external complexity of the image and creating a single holistic image, delving into which the viewer gradually sees details and details. Shishkin comes in the paintings "Forest Wilderness" (1873, Russian Museum) or "Rye" (1878, State Tretyakov Gallery) to show nature, trying to find content not in the plot introduced from outside, but in revealing the very life of nature. In the graphics, this goal is now served by both details and a complex quivering play of light and shadows.

Here I would like to note the beautiful drawing "Ferns in the Forest" (1877) - a completed sketch, twice repeated in painting (ill. 15). Before us is a holistic, immediately perceived view - the depth of the forest illuminated by the sun, overgrown with fern bushes. Shishkin remarkably succeeded in conveying the horizontally arranged patterned fern leaves and revealing the perspective course of space in depth. Looking at these ferns, the play of the sun's rays softly illuminating them, the viewer seems to be immersed in the quiet life of nature, perceiving its charm. From a simple corner of the forest, Shishkin creates a charming image of nature, full of bright happiness and peace.

In the large etching "Hunter in the Swamp" (1873), we have before us an image of nature that is pictorial in its great content and synthetic character (ill. 8). In the far-spreading swampy rays, in the high sky with clouds, the depth of which is emphasized by a flying flock of birds, Shishkin shows breadth and expanse. Peering into this landscape, you see its wide appearance, filling it with the living breath of nature. But this is no longer the former complexity of a simple combination of particulars, but the gradual development and deepening of a single and integral image of nature, in which its inner life unfolds. This is not the complexity of the external description, but the richness of the content of the image, which the artist conveys, gradually revealing the depicted view to us. A large degree of sophistication and completeness of the drawing is the result of the fact that the artist has a lot to show the viewer. This is not a single impression, but the result of long-term observations - a thoughtful, experienced and re-felt image of the artist's native country. The figure of the hunter, as it were, invites the viewer to tune in the appropriate way. She hints at what a person experiences during hunting wanderings, in long-term communication with nature.

This gradual disclosure of the image, in which the artist seeks to convey the life of nature, acting, as it were, as its "by-day writer", is manifested with no less clarity in the above-mentioned etching "Taiga" (1880).

The theme of the endless expanses of fields, the expanse of Russian nature, its free breathing early began to attract Shishkin. A typical example is his beautiful small painting "Noon. In the vicinity of Moscow" (1869, State Tretyakov Gallery), with its high sky and festively, joyfully floating in it large elegant cumulus clouds. This light and high expanse, the festive summer image of nature, we find in a number of etchings by the artist. Such is the beautiful sheet of "Clouds over the Grove" (1878), with its complex motif of sunbeams, due to clouds falling down on fields and groves (ill. 7). It is interesting to note that this bright, joyful image is also given, with the usual sobriety and calmness for Shishkin, without any particular elation and pathos. But still, sometimes in this transmission of the boundless distances and expanses of nature, Shishkin was fascinated by the epic moment, the poetic experience of open spaces, the exciting power of space. This is how such canvases as "Among the Flat Valley..." (1883, Russian Museum) and such sheets as the etching "From the banks of the Kama near Yelabuga" (1885) (ill. 23) were born. Behind the cliff overgrown with huge firs, you can see the mirror of the river below, and behind it goes to the horizon an boundless, forested plain. A large bird hovers over the cliff, enhancing the feeling of space beckoning into the distance. The mighty and harsh breath of the virgin nature of the Russian north emanates from this etching. The lively, free drawing "Forest River" (1876) is an example of Shishkin's sketches from nature (ill. 12). With great knowledge and confidence, he draws a pine trunk, its branches and needles. The pencil easily and boldly draws on paper, outlining the trees, the shore, the river and buildings in the distance. The motive is excellently expressed and spatial plans are transferred. With all the freedom of natural study and drawing, compositional construction is evident. Before us is a typical example of the Wandering method - to find a picture in nature itself.

Turning from this drawing to the drawings of the 1890s - "Pine Tops" and "Clouds", we see how Shishkin's style of sketch from nature becomes more and more free and wide. At the same time, however, the line retains all its clarity and accuracy. The knowledge of nature is so great that Shishkin immediately conveys the whole character of the subject with one or two lines. So, with amazing freedom, one quick contour line, with quick shading inside the contour, he conveys the silhouette of the forest in the Clouds drawing (ill. 20), and we feel living nature. Looking at the firmness and confidence of the lines of the drawing "Pine Tops" (ill. 22), one involuntarily recalls the drawings of the classic artist of the late 18th - early 19th centuries F. M. Matveev, his famous sketches of pine trees.

Thus, preserving a linear drawing until the end of his work, Shishkin, along with this, began to draw in a pictorial manner from the 1880s. In an effort to convey air and light, he begins to draw with charcoal and chalk on colored paper. The drawing "Spider Web in the Forest" (1880s) (ill. 16) is characteristic for its picturesqueness and soft transmission of air. Etching "Sands" (1886) - reflects in the graphics Shishkin's passion for plein air tasks, the transmission of sunlight and air, the search for immediacy in the image of nature (ill. 21). The etching is imbued with lively dynamics; it seems you hear a slight rustle of pine trees in the wind coming from the sea. The dune sand overgrown with dry grass, illuminated by the sun, is perfectly conveyed. In a one-color engraving, Shishkin creates the impression of the color of nature - light yellow sand and dark green pine needles. Looking at this etching, one involuntarily recalls the beautiful, full of light, sun, air, Shishkin's painting "Pine Trees Illuminated by the Sun" (1886, State Tretyakov Gallery) imbued with the lively thrill of life. Similarly, the painting "Oak Grove" (1887, Kyiv State Museum of Russian Art) brings to mind the simultaneous solar etching "Three Oaks" (1887), one of the best graphic works of Shishkin. With amazing truthfulness, the light of the sun is conveyed here, its play on the emerald grass, the luminous patterned foliage pierced by the sun against the background of dark oak trunks. Taking the image against the light, Shishkin, by transferring the light contour, causes a feeling of airiness. At the same time, he skillfully uses light reflections to work out the forms in the shadows. Thanks to this, the dark trunks of oaks do not seem to be flat silhouettes. Shishkin achieves here a harmonious combination of graphically voluminous and pictorial principles. From this leaf, we seem to breathe forest freshness, the warmth of the sun, the moisture of greenery, the aroma of the summer flowering of nature (see reproduction of the etching on the cover).

"Shishkin is a milestone in the development of the Russian landscape, this is a man - a school," I. N. Kramskoy wrote about him in 1878. I. I. Shishkin appears before us as a remarkable connoisseur of nature, a brilliant draftsman in his drawings and etchings. The images created by him in graphics are deeply truthful, meaningful and impressive. In the love for nature, by which they were born and which they are permeated with, a feeling of their native country, sincere and lively patriotism, manifested itself. The artist faithfully served his country, his people, revealing to him the beauty and wealth of his homeland, teaching him to appreciate it and believe in it. In the images of nature, he was an advanced man of his time. He peculiarly captured the feelings and thoughts of the democrats in the landscape. The images of nature in Shishkin's works are topical and social. All this is valuable and instructive for us from the point of view of the critical development of the heritage of classical Russian realistic art. Shishkin's graphics, delivering great and pure joy to the Soviet viewer, enriching his sense of nature, teach our Soviet landscape painters a lot.

The outstanding Russian landscape painter I.I. Shishkin is best known for his monumental paintings. The exposition provides a rare opportunity to get acquainted with the least known facet of creativity - with his works in a complex and time-consuming etching technique. The highly professional graphic works of the master complement the whole image of the majestic Russian nature he created.

The famous Russian landscape painter Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin became famous for his monumental paintings, in which he reflected the greatness and power of Russian nature. The master's work vividly embodies the most characteristic ideas about Russian nature that are close to the people's consciousness. His works have become a true revelation for their time. For the first time, a simple landscape embodied a deep content, acquired an epic monumental form. The outstanding artist created a generalized, but convincing in its authenticity artistic image, completely based on natural vision, on close attention to reality, to each of its seemingly inconspicuous manifestations. Shishkin's paintings - “Rye”, “In the wild north ...”, “Among the flat valley ...”, “Ship grove”, “In the forest of Countess Mordvinova”, “Morning in a pine forest” and many others are widely known and loved by the audience.

But along with the pictorial heritage, a bright, significant contribution to the treasury of the national artistic culture are also his numerous drawings and etchings, which amaze with the virtuosity of execution. I.I. Shishkin was an excellent draftsman and engraver. He began to study lithography and etching at the School of Painting and Sculpture. In early drawings, Shishkin limited himself to the truthful transmission of a particular corner of nature (most often they were a source of study of nature). In his mature period, in engravings, he revealed a more complex, multifaceted image of Russian nature.

In the 19th century, etching in Russia was not given much attention, although well-known masters worked in this area: A. Orlovsky, F. Bruni, poet V. Zhukovsky, T. Shevchenko, ... and even Emperor Nicholas I printed several etchings under the guidance of O .Kiprensky. In the late 1860s, on the initiative of A. Somov, a connoisseur of art, the curator of the Hermitage, a small circle of “aquafortists” was created. This circle was joined by I.I. Shishkin, who had previously been engaged in etching in the studio of the artist R. Koller in Zurich. Ivan Ivanovich took an active part in the albums published by the circle. The Shishkin sheets that were not included in them were published by the Society for the Encouragement of Artists as a separate (it is called the first) album of the master - “Engravings on copper with strong vodka I.I. Shishkin" (St. Petersburg, 1873), which was presented as a prize to members of the Society for 1873. In 1878, with the help of the artist I.V. Volkovsky, Shishkin published a new (2nd) album “25 copper engravings by I.I. Shishkin” (St. Petersburg, 1878).

Ivan Ivanovich resumed his studies in etching only in 1885. By the winter of 1886, he created the 3rd album "Etchings by I. I. Shishkin 1885-1886" (St. Petersburg, edition of A. E. Palchikov, 1886), which the artist considered "as an excellent means of promoting Russian realistic art in the most remote places Russia and the formation of aesthetic taste among people interested in art. This album was printed in the studio of the Academy of Arts by the only printer in St. Petersburg, Kellenbenz, after whose death the last sheets were printed and varied many times by Shishkin himself. For each plot, the artist looked for a special etching technique, sometimes combined various techniques, skillfully used various linings (except for paper - cambric, velvet, silk), thereby achieving a great variety and depth of tones. Therefore, the publication was expensive and cost 100 rubles (the cheapest edition of the album cost 25 rubles). All of them quickly sold out and became rarities.

The well-known publisher A.F. Marx recognized the artistic significance of these works and, wanting to give them the greatest distribution and fame, acquired etching boards from Shishkin in full ownership. In 1894, the A.F. Marx Partnership released a retrospective album “60 etchings by I.I. It includes the best etchings printed from the author's boards according to the instructions and under the supervision of the artist himself, created by him over twenty years.

It is these engravings that are presented in the museum at the anniversary exhibition dedicated to the 180th anniversary of the birth of the great master. The Sevastopol Art Museum received the album of etchings by I.I. It should be emphasized that a very small number of complete albums have now survived. In the collections of most museums, private collections or collections of auction houses, most often only single sheets of this edition are found. All this allows us to consider the album from the collection of the Sevastopol Art Museum unique and extremely interesting.

L. Smirnova, art critic

PAINTING

"In the midst of a flat valley..."
1883

View on the island of Valaam1858

Landscape with a hunter. Valaam Island 1867

"Hut"