Description of the painting by Ivan Shishkin “Road in the Rye”

Description of the painting by Ivan Shishkin Road in the Rye

Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin – Russian artist, unsurpassed master of landscape and pastoral. Shishkin’s name is known, probably, to every schoolchild – his works are so often found on the pages of books and textbooks, and he is necessarily told about him in the museum separately.

Shishkin was an honorary academician, head of the landscape workshop, and trained dozens of talented artists. But, despite all the active work in the artistic community of his time, Ivan Ivanovich became famous, of course, for his paintings.

The landscapes of Russian nature, familiar to anyone who has ever left the city, circle their heads with their brightness, vitality and realism. The Road in the Rye was and still is one of the painter’s masterpieces.

The picture depicts exactly what is indicated in its laconic name – the road that cuts through the rye fields. As in all other landscapes, the canvas is divided

into two parts by a clear strip of the horizon. The light blue sky, telling the viewer about the good weather, is dotted with snow-white clouds.

The horizon is almost not cut through the trees, which means the field and, along with it, the road stretches very far from the pictured place. Bright yellow rye is pleasing to the eye, improves mood, as if the sun appears in the picture, flooding everything around with light.

Clearly in the middle, in the very center of the picture, Shishkin places a small figure of a man – a traveler, in a dark canvas robe and with a white bundle behind him, holding on to a long stick that will help him go all the long way, waiting ahead.

In the work there are typical and atypical elements for Shishkin. Drawing the grass and details, up to the stick of the traveler, is very similar to the artist – he is interested in each element, to which the master will have the same value as the general whole. But, for example, the panoramic format of a picture is a rather rare phenomenon.

Probably, in this case, he was chosen by Shishkin to increase the sense of length, to help the viewer feel the landscape better.


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Description of the painting by Ivan Shishkin “Road in the Rye”