Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich - artist of the late XIX and early XX centuries. The main theme in the work is the Russian landscape. The artist loved just the middle strip of Russia and in the 90s he painted three especially famous landscapes, which we will talk about later.
Some information about the artist
Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich (1858-1929) was born in a more than wealthy merchant family. He was given an excellent education. The desire to do painting came to him after he saw the painting by V. D. Polenov, “Moscow Courtyard”. By this time he was already twenty years old.
Ilya Semenovich did not want to get an academic education. It was too late to start serious work, but Ilya Semenovich Ostroukhov began to take lessons from I. Repin. The classes were successful, and soon he worked with V. M. Vasnetsov, and later with V. Serov.
The artist himself was unhappy with the early landscapes. He painted his paintings in the open air, and when he became ill by age, he worked on the sketches he already had. He adopted this technique from VD Polenov, whom he considered his teacher, although he did not take lessons directly from him. When Ostroukhov began to work in full force, he was called "brilliant self-taught."
In 1886, he exhibited his new work, Golden Autumn, and immediately received universal recognition. It was especially important that P. M. Tretyakov acquired it for his collection.
As an artist, Ilya Semenovich did not work long. He became interested in social activities, and after marriage he completely departed from practical painting, collecting. He collected the canvases of prominent Russian and Western European artists, as well as icons, sculptures, antique, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese works of literature. He had a magnificent library, which included 12,000 volumes.
Tragic end
After 1917, the collection became the property of the state, and Ilya Semenovich made it a keeper. But then in 1929, sick and half-blind, as a former merchant and tea merchant, they were deprived of suffrage. He died in Moscow, and his grave is in the Danilovsky cemetery. No less tragically ended the life of his wife, expelled and lost shelter over her head. She ended her life in one of the cellars of Moscow. The Soviet government, which took away the entire collection from I.S. Ostroukhov, did not allow him or his wife to worthily end their life's journey.
Ilya Semenovich Ostroukhov: “Golden Autumn” (1886)
In the forest, more like a park, a narrow path is laid that divides the canvas in half.
Two magpie-sided magpies are seated on it, who are serenely busy with their own affairs, since no one is here. Otherwise, these birds would take off and raise a bolt.
There is silence in the forest. Not a breeze. Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich depicted trees covered with gold leaves. They calmly drop them on the eve of autumn rains and storms. In the foreground are young maples that have grown over the past summer. Their foliage is yellowish greenish. Among them, a slightly contrasting black earth is visible. Two maples, located on the right, with thick dark trunks and thin branches, hold golden-red and golden-green leaves, carefully painted by the artist. Through the crowns you can barely see the cool autumn sky. It is pale, grayish blue.
In the background are bizarrely twisted trunks of three old trees. They are also covered with golden foliage, which shines, pleasing to the eye. But it is far away and covered with a light haze. For these trunks go into the depths of the forest grayish brown shadows.
Landscape of Ilya Semenovich Ostroukhov “Golden Autumn” evokes poetic feelings, a desire to admire the beauty of Russian autumn, to recall poems dedicated to autumn. “Here is a maple leaf on the branch. Today it’s just like new! All rosy, golden ...” (verses by V. D. Berestov).
Different landscape
The paintings of Ilya Semenovich Ostroukhov depict other seasons. Spring on his canvas is just beginning.
The hillock was already covered with dense gentle soft greens. Part of the trees in the distance, the small grove was already green with young foliage, and the birches in the foreground had not yet dressed it.
On the other side of a winding blue rivulet in a haze stands a forest. The sky is pale, the sun is not visible. But nature has come to life and is waiting for the approach of warm rains, so that everything will flourish and blossom. This is a quiet homeland, the invariable harmonious Russian landscape.
Summer on the canvas
Again, the usual view, pleasant to the Russian eye, is a river covered with water lilies and sedge, lush willows on the other side ... They are reflected in blue water. And around the vast expanse - green hills and rifts. In the distance leaves a dense forest. The sky as usual with Ilya Semenovich is dim, with cumulus clouds that almost always obscure the sun. This is what Ostroukhov’s painting “The River at Noon” (1892) looks like.
Siverko (1890)
This work is considered the best in the heritage of the painter. The panorama of the landscape is modest, but it creates a monumental image of Russian nature. P. M. Tretyakov believed that this was one of his best acquisitions.
The canvas depicts a bend of a river under the sky with heavy, gloomy, crushing clouds. On the right side - steep sandy banks that are overgrown with grass. Rare flowers whiten in it. A sandbank is visible on the other side. The river is rippled from the cold north wind, which is called the “siverko”. Two gulls flicker above it.
The color of the river is unusual. Lilac-blue color gives off because it reflects a cold sky. In the distance you can see a sandy island overgrown with grass. A panorama in the distance on the horizon is a dark forest with jagged tops, for which gray clouds cling, carrying cold showers. The thickened silence portends a storm, from which a forest sways in the distance and centuries-old trees will fall.
Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich painted with love for the pristine nature, untouched by the human hand. She pleases and gives pleasure to her appearance.