| An enormously influential painter of Russian landscapes, especially forests, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin was born in the small provincial town of Yelabuga to a merchant of rather modest means. In 1852 he managed to enter the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, where the young prodigy's work eclipsed that of many of his teachers. By 1856 he was ready to move to St. Petersburg to continue his studies at the Academy there. After winning the Gold Medal at the Academy, Shishkin traveled Europe between 1862 and 1865, at which point he returned to Russia and was made an academician. His involvement in the Wanderers and adherence to materialistic aesthetics separate him from later landscape artists, but his great influence on their work has never been questioned. Shishkin's skills extended into draughtsmanship and etching, and he did a great deal to revive Russian interest in the latter. |
