Ivan Shishkin

Ivan Shishkin

Ivan Shishkin (Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin) was a Russian artist who lived from 1832 to 1898. Shishkin is remembered as one of the greatest Russian landscape painters of all time. His art is most closely associated with the Peredvizhniki movement, which was the Russian counterpart of the Realism movement that was happening in France at the same time. Shishkin’s landscapes usually depicted trees, birds, and animals. He was also a notable engraver.  His goal was to depict, with complete honesty, the beauty and emotion found within the Russian countryside.  He is quoted as saying, “My motto? Be Russian. Long live Russia!”

Ivan Shishkin studied art from a young age, first at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, and then at the Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts. He always did very well in school, receiving multiple honors throughout his education. He spent most of his childhood in the old forests of Russia where he developed a lifelong love for Shishkin is known for his landscapes of Russia. He was often labeled the “singer of the Russian woods”. He spent his childhood in the old forests of Russia and developed a lifelong love of the trees. He was particularly fond of pine and oak trees.

Shishkin went on to become an art professor and ultimately taught at the most prestigious art school in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Shishkin owned a second home out in the country in the rural area of Vyra south of Saint Petersburg. He spent a lot of time here. He roamed the forests and woods and spent time studying nature. Many of his landscape paintings were based on the setting in this area.

Shishkin became recognized outside of Russia, participating in multiple world fairs in the latter half of the nineteenth century and working in Germany and Switzerland. Shishkin died in 1898 at only 66 years old while working on painting. Sadly, he died alone, outliving two wives and all his children. Here’s an interesting fact: There was a planet, 3558 Shishkin, named after Ivan Shishkin. It was discovered by the Soviet astronomer, Lyudmila Zhuravlyova, in 1978.

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