I. I. Shishkin is one of the best representatives of the Russian school of painting, a master of realistic landscapes. As his contemporaries, fellow artists and critics noted, the artist subtly felt psychology, the nature of nature, and surprisingly precisely knew how to convey them and express them in his work. The wonderful canvas "Rye" is a vivid confirmation of this.
Rye, rye, field road ...
Shishkin's painting "Rye" is a classic reflection of the Russian national chronotope. What is he like? Smooth fields or steppes and the road that goes into the distance. The space is expanded; neither mountains nor any buildings limit it. And above it - the same wide, boundless sky, whitish-bluish, with clouds floating thoughtfully. And as connecting the two elements - earth and air - tree links, uplifting their crowns. That is exactly what Shishkin’s picture “Rye” looks like. It was written in 1878, after another trip to his native Elabuga. Viewers saw the canvas at the 6th exhibition of the Wanderers - and were conquered by its plain majestic beauty and sincerity. What did they see? A narrow road overgrown with grass, paved by peasant carts between a golden rye field, going forward from the viewer forward. The cornfield is earing on the right and left sides, low, dense, and it seems that the rustle of ears is heard in the breeze.
Description of the painting
This is the picture of Shishkin "Rye" in the foreground. In addition to the field, the audience seems to surround, envelop the sky from all sides. It seems that it lets in: step through the frame, find yourself inside the canvas - and you will be inside it too. Field and sky stretch far where the eye can see, and hide behind the horizon. And on both sides of the cornfield, along its edge, lonely tall pines rise. And this is no coincidence. Although Shishkin’s painting “Rye” was named, the artist could not help but draw his favorite tree. It is rightfully considered a symbol of all his work. Pines are tall, with whitish, slightly curved trunks. Their branches are down and resemble a luxurious natural tent. Trees, like mighty heroes, sentinels, are on guard of a ripening crop. Ivan Shishkin "Rye" wrote his own, admiring sincerely not only the scope of the Russian fields, their clean, fresh breath, but also the grandeur, pride of the prickly giants.
Mood picture
Considering the artistic canvas, imbued with its charm, one cannot but pay attention to the special state of the pre-storm in which nature is located. She seemed to freeze in anticipation, in anticipation of the revelation of the elements, as willful and uncontrollable, limitless as the Russian spirit. This is perhaps the whole Shishkin! "Rye" (the description of the picture helps to understand this) - the canvas-mood, the canvas-feeling. The author observes how single gusts of wind run through the ears, how the tops of the pines sway, how their huge paws nod from side to side. The image is saturated with hidden expression, expressive and dynamic. A special revitalization is given to the canvas by swallows flying low above the ground. They draw air with arrows, emphasizing the alarming expectation by nature of a cleansing thunderstorm.
The country road curls forward with tape. In the background, silhouettes of solitary trees rise. Far from the visible jagged strip of forest. The sky is also darker there, the clouds thickened with a dense mass. And in the center of the picture they are lighter, with a slight pinkish tint. What does the viewer feel when he stops before Shishkin’s work, contemplating it? Probably, an irresistible desire to be there, in this hot midday land, to expose the face to the sun, to breathe in the fragrant warm air from the heart and feel like a piece of this magnificent, eternal nature.
Such is she, the life-giving force of true art!