Ivan Shishkin attached great importance to an intent study of nature. Ivan Kramskoi appreciated his close attention to detail and confident style: “When he stands before nature … he is exactly in his element. He is audacious, artful and does not hesitate.” The master’s fundamental principle was no approximation in the representation of nature. This particular study demonstrates the landscapist’s ability to depict life with almost photographic precision, revealing the beauty of the everyday and seemingly unremarkable. Depicting a small corner of nature, Shishkin creates a minor masterpiece.

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.