Shishkin morning in the pine forest where he is located. The real story of the creation of the painting "Morning in a Pine Forest" (from the series "Vyatka - the Homeland of Elephants")

04.05.2019

"Morning in pine forest" - painting by Russian artists Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky. Savitsky painted the bears, but the collector Pavel Tretyakov erased his signature, so that Shishkin alone is often indicated as the author of the painting.

The painting is popular due to the compositional inclusion of animalistic elements in the landscape canvas. The painting conveys in detail the state of nature seen by the artist on Gorodomlya Island. Shown not deaf dense forest, A sunlight, breaking through the columns of tall trees. You can feel the depth of the ravines, the power of centuries-old trees, the sunlight seems to timidly peek into this dense forest. The frolicking cubs feel the approach of morning.

Presumably, the idea for the painting was suggested to Shishkin by Savitsky, who later acted as a co-author and depicted the figures of the bear cubs (based on Shishkin’s sketches). These bears, with some differences in poses and numbers (at first there were two of them), appear in preparatory drawings and sketches (for example, the State Russian Museum contains seven versions of Shishkin’s pencil sketches). Savitsky turned out the animals so well that he even signed the painting together with Shishkin. Savitsky himself told his family: “The painting was sold for 4 thousand, and I am a participant in the 4th share.”

Having acquired the painting, Tretyakov removed Savitsky’s signature, leaving the authorship behind Shishkin, because in the painting, Tretyakov said, “from concept to execution, everything speaks about the manner of painting, about creative method, characteristic of Shishkin."

In the inventory of the gallery, initially (during the lives of the artists Shishkin and Savitsky), the painting was listed under the title “Bear Family in the Forest” (and without indicating Savitsky’s surname).

Russian prose writer and publicist V. M. Mikheev wrote the following words in 1894:
Look into this gray fog of the forest distance, into the “Bear Family in the Forest”... and you will understand what kind of forest expert, what a strong objective artist you are dealing with. And if something in his paintings interferes with the integrity of your impression, it won’t be the details of the forest, but, for example, the figures of bears, the interpretation of which makes you want a lot and spoils a lot big picture where the artist placed them. Obviously, the master forest specialist is not nearly as good at depicting animals.

Reproductions of “Morning in a Pine Forest” were widely circulated in the USSR. However, this began even before the revolution; in particular, since the 19th century, reproductions have been reproduced on the wrapper of the “Bear-Toed Bear” chocolates. Thanks to this, the picture is well known among the people, often under the name “Three Bears” (although there are four bears in the picture). Because of such candy-wrapped circulation, the picture began to be perceived in Soviet and post-Soviet languages. cultural space as an element of kitsch.

Ivan Shishkin glorified not only his hometown(Elabuga) for the whole country, but also for the entire vast territory of Russia and for the whole world. His most famous painting is “Morning in a Pine Forest.” Why is it so famous and why is it considered practically the standard of painting? Let's try to understand this issue.

Shishkin and landscapes

Ivan Shishkin is a famous landscape artist. His unique style of work originates from the Düsseldorf School of Drawing. But, unlike most of his colleagues, the artist passed the basic techniques through himself, which made it possible to create a unique style, not inherent in anyone else.

Shishkin admired nature all his life; she inspired him to create numerous masterpieces of a million colors and shades. The artist always tried to depict the flora as he sees it, without various exaggerations and decorations.

He tried to choose landscapes untouched by human hands. Virgin like the forests of the taiga. combine realism with a poetic view of nature. Ivan Ivanovich saw poetry in the play of light and shadow, in the power of Mother Earth, in the fragility of one Christmas tree standing in the wind.

The versatility of the artist

It's hard to imagine such a thing genius artist the head of the city or school teacher. But Shishkin combined many talents. Coming from a merchant family, he had to follow in the footsteps of his parent. In addition, Shishkin’s good disposition quickly endeared him to people throughout the city. He was elected to the post of manager and helped develop his native Elabuga as best he could. Naturally, this was also manifested in painting. Shishkin’s pen is “History of the City of Elabuga”.

Ivan Ivanovich managed to draw pictures and participate in fascinating archaeological excavations. He lived abroad for some time, and even became an academician in Düsseldorf.

Shishkin was an active member of the Itinerants Society, where he met other famous Russian artists. He was considered a real authority among other painters. They tried to inherit the master’s style, and the paintings inspired both writers and painters.

He left behind a legacy of numerous landscapes that have become decorations in museums and private collections around the globe.

After Shishkin, few people managed to depict all the diversity of Russian nature so realistically and so beautifully. No matter what happened in the artist’s personal life, he did not allow his troubles to be reflected on the canvases.

Background

The artist treated forest nature with great trepidation; it literally captivated him with its countless colors, variety of shades, and the rays of the sun breaking through the thick pine branches.

Painting "Morning in pine forest"became the embodiment of Shishkin's love for the forest. It quickly gained popularity, and was soon used in pop culture, on stamps, and even on candy wrappers. To this day it is carefully kept in Tretyakov Gallery.

Description: “Morning in a pine forest”

Ivan Shishkin managed to capture one moment from an entire forest life. He conveyed with the help of a drawing the moment of the beginning of the day, when the sun was just beginning to rise. An amazing moment of the birth of a new life. The painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” depicts an awakening forest and still sleepy bear cubs that are getting out of a secluded dwelling.

In this painting, as in many others, the artist wanted to emphasize the immensity of nature. To do this, he cut off the tops of the pine trees at the top of the canvas.

If you look closely, you will notice that the roots of the tree on which the cubs are frolicking have been torn out. Shishkin seemed to emphasize that this forest is so uninhabited and deaf that only animals can live in it, and the trees fall on their own, from old age.

Shishkin indicated the morning in a pine forest with the help of the fog that we see between the trees. Thanks to this artistic move, the time of day becomes obvious.

Co-authorship

Shishkin was an excellent landscape painter, but rarely took on images of animals in his works. The painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” was no exception. He created the landscape, but the four cubs were painted by another artist, an expert on animals, Konstantin Savitsky. They say that it was he who suggested the very idea for this painting. While painting a morning in a pine forest, Shishkin took Savitsky as a co-author, and the painting was initially signed by the two of them. However, after the canvas was transferred to the gallery, Tretyakov considered Shishkin’s work more extensive and erased the name of the second artist.

Story

Shishkin and Savitsky went into nature. This is how the story began. The morning in the pine forest seemed so beautiful to them that it was impossible not to immortalize it on canvas. To search for a prototype, they went to Gordomlya Island, which stands on Lake Seliger. There they found this landscape and new inspiration for the painting.

The island, completely covered with forests, contained the remnants of virgin nature. For many centuries it stood untouched. This could not leave artists indifferent.

Claims

The painting was born in 1889. Although Savitsky initially complained to Tretyakov that he had erased his name, he soon changed his mind and abandoned this masterpiece in favor of Shishkin.

He justified his decision by the fact that the style of the painting fully corresponds to what Ivan Ivanovich did, and even the sketches of the bears originally belonged to him.

Facts and Misconceptions

Like any famous painting, the painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” arouses great interest. Consequently, it has a number of interpretations and is mentioned in literature and cinema. They say about this masterpiece as in high society, and on the streets.

Over time, some facts have been changed, and general misconceptions have become firmly entrenched in society:

  • One of the common mistakes is the opinion that Vasnetsov created “Morning in a Pine Forest” together with Shishkin. Viktor Mikhailovich, of course, knew Ivan Ivanovich, since they were members of the Itinerants club together. However, Vasnetsov could not possibly be the author of such a landscape. If you pay attention to his style, he is not at all similar to Shishkin, they belong to different art schools. These names are still mentioned together from time to time. Vasnetsov is not that artist. “Morning in a Pine Forest,” without any doubt, was painted by Shishkin.
  • The title of the painting sounds like “Morning in a Pine Forest.” Boron is simply a second name that people apparently found more appropriate and mysterious.
  • Unofficially, some Russians still call the painting “Three Bears,” which is blunder. There are not three, but four animals in the picture. It is likely that the canvas began to be called that because of the popular Soviet time sweets called “Teddy bear”. The candy wrapper depicted a reproduction of Shishkin’s “Morning in a Pine Forest.” People gave the candy the name “Three Bears”.
  • The picture has its “first version”. Shishkin painted another canvas of the same theme. He called it “Fog in the Pine Forest.” Few people know about this picture. She is rarely remembered. There is no canvas on site Russian Federation. To this day it is kept in private collection in Poland.
  • Initially, there were only two bear cubs in the picture. Later Shishkin decided that the image should include four clubfooted people. Thanks to the addition of two more bears, the genre of the film changed. It began to be located on the “borderland”, as some elements of the game scene appeared on the landscape.



Painting: 1889
Canvas, oil.
Size: 139 × 213 cm

Description of the painting “Three Bears” by I. Shishkin

Artist: Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, Konstantin Apollonovich Savitsky
Title of the painting: “Morning in a pine forest”
Painting: 1889
Canvas, oil.
Size: 139 × 213 cm

In our country, you will not find a second such “hit” canvas, the plot of which is present on a rare grandmother’s bedspread, an embroidered little thought, a tablecloth, plates and even on wrappers with cute clubtoes. Memories of parents chocolate candies and the moves of PR people - this is what does not allow us to forget about I. Shishkin’s painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” or, in common parlance, “Three Bears”.

But only Shishkin? The bears were painted on canvas by K. Savitsky, who at first depicted two clubfooted bears, and then raised their number to four. Previously, it was believed that Shishkin, despite his rather significant successes in animal painting, was unable to depict bears, so he simply exploited poor Savitsky and did not even allow him to sign the picture. In fact, the artists were friends, and the bears appeared after the latter said that the canvas was not dynamic. Shishkin could draw anyone, but not bears, so he gave Savitsky the opportunity to revive the picture and put a signature. The collector P. Tretyakov was not so loyal: he bought the painting from Shishkin, which means that the authorship is his, so there can be no Savitskys here. In general, the inscription was erased and “Morning in a Pine Forest” began to be considered one of the key paintings in the work of one of the most outstanding Russian landscape painters.

The “Teddy Bear” candies with Shishkin’s reproduction on the candy wrapper gave the name to the painting “Three Bears”. The delicacy that appeared was filled with almonds and cocoa beans, it was expensive, but it was so tasty that even the agitator of everyone and everything, V. Mayakovsky, could not resist and wrote that if you want “Bears,” then put a certain amount of money into a savings book. This is how “Teddy Bear” became “Three Bears” (and there are four of them in the picture), candy became one of the signs of the USSR, and I. Shishkin became a people’s artist.

True, he was a singer of nature native land and before the Bears. The artist wanted and knew how to surprise, first of all, with landscapes, which he painted so brilliantly that he earned the reputation of a master of detail. Only here you will see a haze of fog, as if floating among the branches of hundred-year-old pines, soft and cozy moss on the boulders, clear water stream, morning or evening coolness, midday heat of summer. What’s interesting is that all the artist’s paintings are partly epic, but always monumental. At the same time, Shishkin is not pretentious, he is simply a person who sincerely admires the majestic nature of his native land and knows how to portray it.

“Morning in a Pine Forest” pacifies with the balance of its composition. Three bear cubs look very harmonious with their mother bear, and I just want to apply them to the two halves of a fallen pine tree. divine proportion. This picture is like a random shot on an old camera that a tourist managed to take after searching for true virgin nature for so long.

And if you look at the coloring of the picture, it’s as if the artist is trying to capture all the richness of the colors of the dawn time. We see air, but it is not the usual shade of blue, but rather blue-green, a little cloudy and foggy. The predominant colors that surrounded the clubfooted inhabitants of the forest are green, blue and sunny yellow, reflecting the mood of awakened nature. The bright flickering of golden rays in the background seems to hint at the sun that is about to illuminate the earth. It is these highlights that give the picture solemnity; it is they that speak of the realism of the fog above the ground. “Morning in a Pine Forest” is another confirmation of the tactility of Shishkin’s paintings, because you can even feel the cool air.

Look closely at the forest. Its appearance is conveyed so realistically that it becomes clear: this is not a forest clearing, but a deep thicket - a true concentration of living nature. The sun had just risen above her, the rays of which had already managed to make their way to the top of the tree crowns, splashing them with gold and again hiding in the thicket. The damp fog, which has not yet cleared, seems to have awakened the inhabitants of the ancient forest.

The cubs and the mother bear woke up, developing their vigorous activity. Satisfied and well-fed bears will learn in the morning the world, exploring a nearby fallen pine tree, and the mother bear watches the babies, who are touchingly clumsily climbing the tree. Moreover, the mother bear watches not only the cubs, but also tries to catch the slightest sounds that could disturb their idyll. It’s simply amazing how these animals, painted by another artist, were able to revive the compositional design of the painting: the fallen pine tree seemed to be created for this bear family, busy with their important affairs against the backdrop of a remote and wild corner of Russian nature.

The painting “Morning in a Pine Forest” reveals the mastery of realistic images and its quality, which is in many ways superior to modern digital technology. Every blade of grass, every ray of sun, every pine needle was written by Shishkin lovingly and reverently. If the foreground of the canvas depicts a fallen pine tree with bears climbing on it, then in the background there is an ancient forest. Bear cubs and the rest of nature evoke calming positive emotions in every person. Animals, like toy animals, fill the beginning of a new day with kindness and set the mood for positive thinking. Looking at these cute animals, it’s hard to believe that they are predators by nature and cannot be capable of cruelty. But that’s not even the main thing. Shishkin focuses the viewer’s attention on the harmony of sunlight that comes from the background of the painting with bear cubs on foreground. Visually draw a line through them - and you will certainly notice that these are the brightest objects in the picture, and everything else, including irregular shape The pine trees are just complementary touches.

It seems that “Morning in a Pine Forest” depicts real, living bears in some kind of fantastic landscape. The Vyatka forest, from which nature is copied, says researchers, is very different from the Shishkin forest. I just wonder if bears exist there now, because the picture has been nurturing the aesthetic and moral taste of people for a century, asking us to take care of the surrounding nature.

“Morning in a Pine Forest” is perhaps one of the most famous paintings Ivan Shishkin. The first thing that attracts and touches the audience looking at the masterpiece is the bears. Without animals, the picture would hardly have turned out so attractive. Meanwhile, few people know that it was not Shishkin, another artist named Savitsky, who painted the animals.

Bear Master

Konstantin Apollonovich Savitsky is now not as famous as Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin, whose name probably even a child knows. Nevertheless, Savitsky is also one of the most talented Russian painters. At one time he was an academician and member of the Imperial Academy of Arts. It is clear that it was on the basis of art that Savitsky met Shishkin.
Both of them loved Russian nature and selflessly depicted it on their canvases. But Ivan Ivanovich preferred landscapes in which people or animals, if they appeared, were only in the role minor characters. Savitsky, on the contrary, actively portrayed both. Apparently, thanks to his friend’s skill, Shishkin became convinced that he was not very successful with the figures of living beings.

Help from a friend

At the end of the 1880s, Ivan Shishkin completed another landscape, in which he depicted an unusually picturesque morning in a pine forest. However, according to the artist, the picture lacked some kind of accent, for which he planned to paint 2 bears. Shishkin even made sketches for future characters, but was dissatisfied with his work. It was then that he turned to Konstantin Savitsky with a request to help him with the animals. Shishkin’s friend did not refuse and happily got down to business. The bears turned out to be enviable. In addition, the number of clubfoot has doubled.
To be fair, it is worth noting that Shishkin himself had no intention of cheating at all, and when the picture was ready, he indicated not only his last name, but also Savitsky’s. Both friends were satisfied with their joint work. But everything was ruined by the founder of the world-famous gallery, Pavel Tretyakov.

Stubborn Tretyakov

It was Tretyakov who purchased “Morning in a Pine Forest” from Shishkin. However, the patron did not like the 2 signatures on the painting. And since, after purchasing this or that work of art, Tretyakov considered himself its sole and rightful owner, he went ahead and erased Savitsky’s name. Shishkin began to object, but Pavel Mikhailovich remained adamant. He said that the style of writing, including regarding bears, corresponds to the manner of Shishkin, and Savitsky is clearly superfluous here.
Ivan Shishkin shared the fee he received from Tretyakov with a friend. However, he gave Savitsky only the 4th part of the money, explaining this by the fact that he did the sketches for “Morning” without the help of Konstantin Apollonovich.
Surely Savitsky was offended by such treatment. In any case, he never painted another painting together with Shishkin. And Savitsky’s bears, in any case, really became the decoration of the picture: without them, “Morning in a Pine Forest” would hardly have received such recognition.

Exposition

The film is popular due to its entertaining plot. However true value The work is a beautifully expressed state of nature, seen by the artist in Belovezhskaya Pushcha. What is shown is not a dense dense forest, but sunlight breaking through the columns of giants. You can feel the depth of the ravines and the power of centuries-old trees. And the sunlight seems to timidly peek into this dense forest. The frolicking cubs feel the approach of morning. We are observers of wildlife and its inhabitants.

Story

Shishkin was suggested to the idea of ​​the painting by Savitsky. Savitsky painted the bears in the film itself. These bears, with some differences in poses and numbers (at first there were two of them), appear in the preparatory drawings and sketches. Savitsky turned out the bears so well that he even signed the painting together with Shishkin. However, when Tretyakov acquired the painting, he removed Savitsky’s signature, leaving the authorship to Shishkin. Indeed, in the picture, Tretyakov said, “from the concept to the execution, everything speaks about the manner of painting, about the creative method that is characteristic of Shishkin.”

  • Most Russians call this picture“Three Bears”, despite the fact that there are not three, but four bears in the picture. This is apparently due to the fact that during the Soviet era, grocery stores sold “Bear-toed Bear” candies with a reproduction of this picture on a candy wrapper, which were popularly called “Three Bears.”
  • Another erroneous common name is “Morning in a Pine Forest” (tautology: a forest is a pine forest).

Notes

Literature

  • Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. Correspondence. Diary. Contemporaries about the artist / Comp. I. N. Shuvalova - Leningrad: Art, Leningrad branch, 1978;
  • Alenov M. A., Evangulova O. S., Livshits L. I. Russian art XI - early XX centuries. - M.: Art, 1989;
  • Anisov L. Shishkin. - M.: Young Guard, 1991. - (Series: Life of Remarkable People);
  • State Russian Museum. Leningrad. Painting of the XII - early XX centuries. - M.: art, 1979;
  • Dmitrienko A. F., Kuznetsova E. V., Petrova O. F., Fedorova N. A. 50 short biographies masters of Russian art. - Leningrad, 1971;
  • Lyaskovskaya O. A. Plein air in Russian paintings of the 19th century century. - M.: Art, 1966.

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