SCHISCHKIN, IVAN IVANOVIC1831 Elabuga - 1898 St. Petersburg


Title: In Nature.
Forest Atmosphere, Presumably on the Island Walaam.
Date: Early 1860s.
Technique: Oil on card.
Measurement: 39 x 57.5cm.
Notation: Monogrammed lower right: "I S (Cyrllic)".
Frame: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany;
Hans Ernst Pfeiffer Collection, Düsseldorf;
Inherited from Max Noffz, Berlin, until around 1938;
Max Noffz Collection (deceased 1921), Berlin;
acquired from private collection, Warsaw (via 'Mr Neuding').

We are grateful to thank Elena Nesterova, Saint Petersburg, for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a high-resolution digital photograph and for suggesting the dating. We are also grateful to Olga Sugrobova-Roth, Düsseldorf, for her help with the cataloguing.

This small, large landscape-format painting does not make it easy for the viewer at first: trees obscure the view, rocks block the way. It takes a little time to grasp this landscape. But if you allow your eye to explore the predominantly green thicket, you will be rewarded by the immense richness of this special depiction.

The meadow in the immediate foreground of the picture lies there in rather diffuse light. In the next, slightly diagonal plane, deciduous trees of various sizes grow between mossy, predominantly rounded granite rocks. But behind this supposed visual barrier, the space continues. There are more trees in the depths. And on the far left at the edge, is there a light-coloured, sandy path? Even further back, water glistens between the treetops and a shoreline becomes visible. It now becomes clear that the lower, bright lights flashing through the trees in the right-hand half of the picture also come from the water. The sky, which is largely obscured by the treetops, can probably only be located in the upper third of the picture. The light strongly reflected by the water illuminates the rocks on the side facing away from the viewer. Stripes of light on the upper edges emphasise this. In this way, the painter achieves a tremendous plasticity of the rocks and tree trunks through a few but extremely effective and sometimes harsh lights. At the same time, he tends to ignore details. The meadow in the foreground and the foliage are depicted quite picturesquely, almost summarily.
This is not a landscape painting in the true sense of the word; it is a portrait of nature as the painter saw and experienced it in his native Russia. And as in a good portrait, the rendering of the character, the soul of the sitter is more important than the photographic likeness.

The master of the natural atmosphere who created this painting is Ivan Ivanovic Shishkin, one of the most important and influential landscape painters of the 19th century in Russia. After four years of training at the Moscow Academy of Painting and Sculpture, Ivan Shishkin moved to St Petersburg, where he focussed entirely on landscape painting. While still a student, he received great recognition; he received high honours and was granted the right to study abroad. From 1862 to 1865, Shishkin travelled to art centres in Germany, France and Belgium. His stay in Düsseldorf was particularly important for him, where he received important inspiration at the academy, where landscape and open-air painting was particularly cultivated.
After his return to St Petersburg in 1865, Ivan Shishkin built on his earlier successes. He represented his country three times at world exhibitions (1867, 1873, 1878) and became a member of the Peredvizhniki artists' association, which brought art to a wide audience through travelling exhibitions. In 1873, Shishkin was appointed professor of landscape painting. His art enjoys immense recognition and popularity. Among others, the important collector Pavel Tret'jakov acquired several of his works. Critics celebrated Shishkin's paintings as cultural events of national importance.