lvan Shishkin often employed the motif of a road or path in a forest. As in so many other of his landscapes, the woods do not stifle or suppress man. While austere and majestic, they are not inaccessible. The sunlight falling on the path and the figures of the people introduces an upbeat note. Shishkin paints a work that can be viewed both as a whole and in its numerous details. The two pine trunks in the foreground balance the right and left sections of the landscape. The clear contours and balanced masses contribute to the sense of stability. The colour scheme is natural and harmonious.

Shishkin Ivan

Shishkin, Ivan Ivanovich (1832, Yelabuga (Vyatka Gubernia) - 1898, St Petersburg)
Painter, draughtsman, engraver, landscapist. Studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1852-1855) and the Imperial Academy of Arts (1856-1860). Fellow of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Germany and Switzerland (1862-1865). Worked in the studio of Rudolf Roller in Zurich (1863), painted studies in the Teutoburg Forest (1864). Lived in Dusseldorf (1864-1865). Founding member of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (1870-1898). Professor (1873). Full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1893). Head the landscape studio at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1894-1895, 1897). Contributed to the World Exhibitions in Paris (1867, 1878), London (1872) and Vienna (1873). Lived in St Petersburg.