Picturesque landscape of Russian artists of the XIX century. landscape painters

Published: March 26, 2018

This list of famous landscape painters has been compiled by our editor, Neil Collins, M.A., LL.B. It represents his personal opinion about the ten best representatives of genre art. Like any compilation of this kind, it reveals more of the compiler's personal tastes than the position of landscape painters. So the top ten landscape painters and their landscapes.

#10 Thomas Cole (1801-1848) and Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900)

In tenth place, two American artists at once.

Thomas Cole: The greatest American landscape painter of the early 19th century and founder of the Hudson River School, Thomas Cole was born in England, where he worked as an apprentice engraver before emigrating to the United States in 1818, where he quickly achieved recognition as a landscape painter, settling in the village of Catskill in the Hudson Valley. An admirer of Claude Lorraine and Turner, he visited England and Italy between 1829 and 1832, after which (thanks in part to the encouragement he received from John Martin and Turner) he began to focus less on natural scenery and more on grandiose allegorical and historical themes. . Largely impressed by the natural beauty of the American landscape, Cole imbued much of his landscape art with great feeling and obvious romantic splendor.

Famous landscapes of Thomas Cole:

- "View of the Catskills - Early Autumn" (1837), oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum, New York

- "American Lake" (1844), oil on canvas, Detroit Institute of Arts

Frederick Edwin Church

Frederick Edwin Church: Cole's student, Church, may have surpassed his teacher in monumental romantic panoramas, each of which conveyed some spirituality of nature. Church painted impressive views of natural landscapes throughout the American continent from Labrador to the Andes.

Famous landscapes by Frederic Church:

- "Niagara Falls" (1857), Corcoran, Washington

- "Heart of the Andes" (1859), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

- "Cotopaxi" (1862), Detroit Institute of Arts

#9 Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)

Thoughtful, melancholic and somewhat reclusive, Caspar David Friedrich is the greatest landscape painter of the Romantic tradition. Born near the Baltic Sea, he settled in Dresden, where he focused exclusively on spiritual connections and the meaning of the landscape, inspired by the silent silence of the forest, as well as light (sunrise, sunset, moonlight) and seasons. His genius lay in his ability to capture a hitherto unknown spiritual dimension in nature, which gives the landscape an emotional, incomparable mysticism.

Famous landscapes of Caspar David Friedrich:

- "Winter Landscape" (1811), oil on canvas, National Gallery, London

- "Landscape in Riesengebirge" (1830), oil on canvas, Pushkin Museum, Moscow

- Man and Woman Looking at the Moon (1830-1835), oil, National Gallery, Berlin

#8 Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)

Often called the "forgotten Impressionist", the Anglo-French Alfred Sisley was second only to Monet in his devotion to spontaneous plein airism: he was the only Impressionist who devoted himself exclusively to landscape painting. His seriously underestimated reputation is based on his ability to capture the unique effects of light and seasons in wide landscapes, sea and river scenes. His depiction of dawn and a cloudy day is especially memorable. Today he is not very popular, but is still considered one of the greatest representatives of Impressionist landscape painting. Could well be overrated, because, unlike Monet, his work never suffered from a lack of form.

Famous landscapes by Alfred Sisley:

- Foggy Morning (1874), oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay

- "Snow at Louveciennes" (1878), oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

- Morette Bridge in the Sun (1892), oil on canvas, private collection

#7 Albert Cuyp (1620-1691)

A Dutch realist painter, Aelbert Kuip is one of the most famous Dutch landscape painters. His most magnificent scenic views, river scenes and landscapes with calm cattle, show majestic serenity and masterful handling of bright light (early morning or evening sun) in the Italian style is a sign of Klodeev's great influence. This golden light often captures only the sides and edges of plants, clouds, or animals through impasto lighting effects. In this way, Cuyp turned his native Dordrecht into an imaginary world, reflecting it at the beginning or end of an ideal day, with an all-encompassing sense of stillness and security, and the harmony of everything with nature. Popular in Holland, it was highly regarded and collected in England.

Famous landscapes of Albert Cuyp:

- "View of Dordrecht from the North" (1650), oil on canvas, collection of Anthony de Rothschild

- “River landscape with horseman and peasants” (1658), oil, National Gallery, London

#6 Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot (1796-1875)

Jean-Baptiste Corot, one of the greatest landscape painters of the Romantic style, is famous for his unforgettable picturesque depiction of nature. His particularly subtle approach to distance, light and form depended on tone rather than drawing and color, giving the finished composition an air of endless romance. Less constrained by painterly theory, Corot's works are nonetheless among the world's most popular landscapes. A regular participant in the Paris Salon since 1827 and a member of the School of Barbizon, led by Theodore Rousseau (1812-1867), he had a great influence on other plein air artists such as Charles-Francois Doubigny (1817-1878), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903). ) and Alfred Sisley (1839-1899). He was also an unusually generous man who spent most of his money on artists in need.

Famous landscapes by Jean-Baptiste Corot:

- "The Bridge at Narni" (1826), oil on canvas, Louvre

- Ville d'Avrey (ca. 1867), oil on canvas, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York

- "Rural Landscape" (1875), oil on canvas, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi, France

#5 Jacob van Ruisdael (1628-1682)

The work of Jacob van Ruisdael, now considered the greatest of all Dutch realist landscape painters, had a huge impact on later European landscape art, despite being less popular during his lifetime than the Italian style painters. His subjects included windmills, rivers, forests, fields, beaches, and seascapes, depicted with an uncommonly moving feeling, using bold forms, dense colors, and energetic thick brushstrokes, instead of the usual focus on tone. Jacob, a student of his uncle Salomon van Ruisdael, in turn taught the famous Meindert Hobbem (1638-1709), and greatly admired the English masters such as Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable, as well as members of the Barbizon School.

Famous landscapes by Jacob van Ruisdael:

- Landscape with Shepherds and Farmers (1665), oil on canvas, Uffizi Gallery

- "The Mill at Wijk near Duarsted" (1670), oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum

- "Jewish Cemetery in Ouderkerk" (1670), Old Masters Gallery, Dresden

No. 4 Claude Lorrain (1600-1682)

French painter, draftsman and engraver active in Rome who is regarded by many art historians as the greatest painter of the idyllic landscape in the history of art. Since pure (i.e., secular and non-classical) landscape, as well as ordinary still life or genre painting, lacked moral heaviness (in the 17th century in Rome), Claude Lorrain introduced classical elements and mythological themes into his compositions, including gods, heroes and saints. In addition, his chosen environment, the countryside around Rome, was rich in ancient ruins. These classic Italian pastoral landscapes were also filled with a poetic light that represents his unique contribution to the art of landscape painting. Claude Lorraine particularly influenced English painters, both during his lifetime and for two centuries thereafter: John Constable called him "the finest landscape painter the world has ever seen".

Famous landscapes by Claude Lorrain:

- "Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino" (1636), oil on canvas, Louvre

- "Landscape with the wedding of Isaac and Rebecca" (1648), oil, National Gallery

- "Landscape with Tobius and the Angel" (1663), oil, Hermitage, St. Petersburg

#3 John Constable (1776-1837)

He ranks alongside Turner as one of the finest English landscape painters, not least because of his exceptional ability to recreate the colors, climate and rustic scenery of the romantic English countryside, but also because of his pioneering role in the development of plein airism. In contrast to Turner's distinctly interpretive style, John Constable focused on nature, painting the landscapes of Suffolk and Hampstead that he knew so well. However, his spontaneous, fresh compositions were often meticulous reconstructions, which owed much to his close study of Dutch realism as well as Italianized works in the vein of Claude Lorrain. The famous painter Henry Fuseli once commented that Constable's life-like naturalistic depictions always made him call for their protection!

Famous landscapes of John Constable:

- "Building a boat at Flatford" (1815), oil, Victoria and Albert Museum, London

- "Hay Cart" (1821), oil on canvas, National Gallery, London

No. 2 Claude Monet (1840-1926)

The greatest modern landscape painter and giant of French painting, Monet was the leading figure of the incredibly influential Impressionist movement, to whose principles of spontaneous plein air painting he remained true for the rest of his life. A close friend of the Impressionist painters Renoir and Pissarro, his desire for optical truth, primarily in the depiction of light, is represented by a series of canvases depicting the same object in different lighting conditions and at different times of the day, such as "Haystacks" (1888 ), The Poplars (1891), Rouen Cathedral (1892) and The River Thames (1899). This method culminated in the famous Water Lilies series (among all the most famous landscapes) created from 1883 in his garden at Giverny. His latest series of monumental drawings of water lilies with shimmering colors has been interpreted by several art historians and painters as an important precursor to abstract art, and by others as the supreme example of Monet's search for spontaneous naturalism.

The Russian landscape as a genre was formed at the end of the 18th century. It took decades and the efforts of many masters for this genre of painting to become as significant as a historical painting or portrait. The pioneers of the landscape genre were artists who studied in Europe - Semyon Shchedrin, Fyodor Matveev, Fyodor Alekseev.

In the romantic art of the first half of the 19th century, the role of the landscape becomes more prominent. The so-called "Russian Italians" - pensioners of the Russian Academy of Arts - Sylvester Shchedrin, Mikhail Lebedev, Alexander Ivanov picked up the pan-European artistic principles of depicting nature.

In the second half of the 19th century, in the works of the Wanderers, the image of nature reaches the highest skill. Diverse and rich landscape painting has become a reflection of the deep love of painters for their native land. At the same time, some were fascinated by lyrical motifs, others by epic motifs, and still others by the search for a generalized image, the colorfulness and decorativeness of the landscape. Winter in Russian painting is so closely connected with the “holy sixties” that the 70s that begin with Savrasov’s “Rooks” seem to be a short spring, the Repin-impressionist 80s seem like an unexpected summer, and the farewell 90s, symbolist Vrubel-Levitan, seem like a long autumn Russian landscape.

In the 60s of the nineteenth century, a period of formation of realistic landscape painting began in Russia. The main role for landscape painters was acquired by the question of the content of art. Motivated by high patriotic feelings, they sought to show the mighty and fertile Russian nature as a source of possible wealth and happiness. At this time, individual works of landscape painters could already boldly stand in line with the paintings of genre painting, which at that time was the most advanced art. A serious contribution to the development of the Russian landscape was made by such famous artists as Alexei Savrasov, Ivan Shishkin, Fyodor Vasiliev, Arkhip Kuindzhi, Vasily Polenov, Isaac Levitan.

An important step in the Russian landscape of the second half of the 19th century was the resurrection in it of the ideals of romantic painting in the general mainstream of realistic tendencies. Vasiliev and Kuindzhi, each in their own way, turned to nature as the ideal of romantic painting, in the opportunity to pour out their feelings.

In the evolution of the domestic landscape, the most important role was played by impressionism, through which almost all serious painters of the late 19th and early 20th centuries went through.

In the artistic life of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, the artistic group "Union of Russian Artists" also played a significant role. It included artists Konstantin Korovin, Abram Arkhipov, Sergei Vinogradov, Konstantin Yuon and others. The main genre in the work of these artists was the landscape. They were the successors of landscape painting in the second half of the 19th century.

Nikolai Krymov and Viktor Borisov-Musatov created their landscapes in the spirit of symbolist art.

In the 1920s and 1930s, neo-academic trends began to develop in art. These views were held by Nikolai Dormidontov, Semyon Pavlov.

Some artists stubbornly continued to develop the traditions laid down in the 19th century. Among them - Alexander Dreven, Morozov. Others have offered a new look at the artistic heritage of the last century. Boris Kustodiev, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin developed their own vision of their native nature.

The first decade of the twentieth century passed under the motto of the most daring search for new expressive means in painting. Kazimir Malevich, Natalya Goncharova found new forms, new colors, new expressive means for conveying the landscape.

Soviet realism continued the traditions of the classical Russian landscape. Arkady Plastov, Vyacheslav Zagonek, the Tkachev brothers looked at their native nature attentively and with optimism.

The Russian landscape has evolved throughout its life from classicism to symbolism, including a romantic and expressive landscape. The exhibition showed all the main stages in the development of this genre.

In the history of the development of Russian landscape painting, one can find many parallels with the European landscape. And this is not surprising, but it is in Russian art, not only in painting, that the landscape has always occupied a special place. For example, Russian artists tried to convey the image of their homeland through the landscape (A. Vasnetsov "Motherland").

The first landscape motifs in Russian painting can be seen on ancient Russian icons. Almost always the figures of saints, the Virgin and Christ were depicted against the backdrop of the landscape. But it is difficult to call it a full-fledged landscape - low hills here denoted rocky terrain, rare "mongrel" trees symbolized the forest, and flat buildings represented chambers and temples. The appearance of the first full-fledged landscapes in Russia dates back to the 18th century. These works were topographic views of St. Petersburg palaces and parks. During the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna, an atlas was published with views of St. Petersburg and its environs, engravings were made by M. I. Makhaev. But most historians agree that the ancestor of the domestic landscape is Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin. It is with his name that the separation of landscape painting into a separate independent genre is associated. An important contribution to the development of the genre was made by contemporaries of S.F. Shchedrin - F. Ya. Alekseev and M. M. Ivanov. The work of Alekseev had a serious influence on a whole generation of young artists: M. N. Vorobyov, A. E. Martynov and S. F. Galaktionov. The works of these painters are dedicated primarily to St. Petersburg, its canals, embankments, palaces and parks.

The merits of M. N. Vorobyov include the creation of a national school of landscape painting. He brought up a galaxy of talented landscape painters, including the Chernetsov brothers, K. I. Rabus, A. P. Bryullov, S. F. Shchedrin. In the middle of the 19th century, Russian landscape painting had already formed its own principles for the perception of nature and ways of conveying it. From the school of M.N. Vorobyov, the romantic traditions of the domestic landscape take place. These ideas were developed by his students M. I. Lebedev, who died at the age of 25, L. F. Lagorio and the master of the seascape I. K. Aivazovsky. An important place in Russian landscape painting is occupied by the work of A. K. Savrasov, a man with a difficult fate. It was he who became the founder of the national lyrical landscape (the painting "The Rooks Have Arrived" and others). Savrasov influenced a number of landscape painters, primarily L.L. Kamenev and I.I. Levitan.

Simultaneously with the lyrical landscape, the epic landscape also developed in Russian painting. The brightest representative of this subgenre is M.K. Klodt, who in each of his paintings sought to convey to the viewer a holistic image of Russia.
The second half of the 19th century is sometimes called the golden age of the Russian landscape. At this time, such masters of landscape painting as: I. I. Shishkin (“Rye”, “In the wild north”, “Among the flat valley”), F. A. Vasiliev (“Wet Meadow”, “Thaw”, “Village ”, “Swamp”), A. Kuindzhi (“Dnieper at night”, “Birch Grove”, “Twilight”), A. P. Bogolyubov (“Havre”, “Harbour on the Seine”, “Vichy. Noon”), And I. Levitan ("March", "Vladimirka", "Birch Grove", "Golden Autumn", "Above Eternal Peace"). The Levitan traditions of the lyrical landscape were developed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries by the artists I. S. Ostroukhov, S. I. Svetoslavsky and N. N. Dubovsky. Landscape painting of the early 20th century is associated, first of all, with the work of I. E. Grabar, K. F. Yuon and A. A. Rylov. In the style of symbolism, landscapes were created by P. V. Kuznetsov, M. S. Saryan, N. P. Krymov and V. E. Borisov-Musatov. After the October Revolution, the industrial landscape developed intensively, the most prominent representatives were M. S. Saryan and K. F. Bogaevsky. Among the domestic landscape painters of the 20th century, it is also worth noting G. G. Nissky, S. V. Gerasimov and N. M. Romadin.

We are glad to welcome you to the blog about contemporary art. Today I want to talk about painting, so this post is entirely dedicated to landscapes by Russian artists. In it you will find the most complete information about the work of Alexander Afonin, Alexei Savchenko and Viktor Bykov. All of them are not just talented, but gifted above the individual. Their work is multifaceted, original and skillful. They attract the attention of not only citizens of the Russian land, but also representatives and collectors from far abroad. It is not an easy task to write about them briefly, but we will try to singulate the information in order to present to your eyes only the most interesting and important from the life of artists and their work. Well, let's move on to the landscapes of Russian artists?

Landscapes of the true Russian artist Alexander Afonin

Alexander Afonin is called a true Russian artist, a modern Shishkin, which is quite justified. He is a member of the UNESCO International Federation of Artists (1996), and has been awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Russian Federation since 2004. The artist was born in 1966 in Kursk. Started drawing at the age of 12. Gradually growing up, the young man began to attract reproductions of the world's masterpieces of painting. Father Pavel was a support for Alexander, he explained to him the basics of the drawing, the tonality. Comprehending art "at home", Afonin entered the Kursk Art School, from which he graduated in 1982.

The period from 1982 to 1986 was a turning point for the artist for the rest of his life. In addition to the fact that in this time period Afonin was educated at the Zheleznogorsk Art School, it was then that he learned professionalism. Today Alexander considers this school one of the best in Russia.

Alexander Pavlovich Afonin prefers to paint landscapes not from photography and not in the office, but from nature. The artist claims that copying photographic landscapes is good ground for degradation, in particular, the loss of a sense of freshness and a sense of air. No wonder great masters like Levitan, Savrasov, Kuindzhi nursed kilometers in search of nature.

Thanks to his talent and diligence, in 1989 Afonin entered the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, which at that time had just begun its history. Alexander graduated from graduate school, became an associate professor of the academic department of painting and drawing, and was also appointed head of the landscape workshop. Now Alexander Pavlovich is already a professor, head of the department and an honored artist of his homeland. The artist believes that every remote corner of the Russian land can and should be captured in the field of high art.

The author's paintings are so poetic and imbued with freshness that you don't even want to take your eyes off one canvas in order to look at another. We wish you to get a lot of positive emotions while viewing the landscapes of the Russian artist.

Landscapes of nature of different seasons from Alexey Savchenko

Alexey Savchenko is a rather young artist, but already recognizable and very promising. The main theme of his paintings, created thanks to the etude style of painting, are small towns, half-forgotten villages, surviving churches, in a word, the hinterland of vast Russia. Savchenko specializes in landscapes of nature of different seasons. As a rule, his paintings convey the nature of the central zone of the Russian Federation.

Landscapes by Russian artist Alexei Savchenko they take it not by color, but by some wayward northern mood. , maximum color realism - perhaps this is what is very expressively visible on the author's canvases.

Alexey Alexandrovich was born in 1975. He was lucky enough to be born in the wonderful historical city of Sergiev Posad, the pearl of the Golden Ring, primarily known as a place of mass Orthodox pilgrimage.

In 1997, Alexey received the specialty of a graphic designer, graduating from the All-Russian College of Toys. In 2001 - faculty of fine arts and folk crafts at the Moscow Pedagogical University. Since 2005 - a member of the Creative Union of Artists of Russia. Constantly takes part in exhibitions of professional artists. Many of his works are held by art collectors in Russia and abroad.

"Forest, as if alive" by Russian artist Viktor Bykov

Victor Alexandrovich Bykov is a famous Russian landscape painter, the author of many works directly related to the beauty and lyricism of Russian nature. The artist was born in 1958. He started painting quite early. In 1980 he graduated from art school. In the period from 1988 to 1993, Viktor Bykov studied at the eminent Stroganovka, which is now called the Moscow State Art and Industry Academy. S.G. Stroganov.

Today, the author's style of painting in the circles of contemporary art is called naturalistic realism, in the old days of the last century they would say "the forest is alive." Juicy tones in the hands of an experienced artist give the desired effect of living paintings. Barely connectable lines, combined with textured thick layers of paint applied in a continuous array on the canvas, make the author's landscapes of the Russian artist both bright and rich in detail. Through this technique, an enthusiastic feeling of the fantastic nature of the paintings, their fabulous infinity, is achieved.

The landscapes in the paintings of the Russian artist convey incredible realism, it seems as if they tell about the nature of the life of the sun's rays and, at the same time, they move transparent air in huge volumes. The artist's paintings are saturated with harmonious colors, fresh images, and the mood of mother nature.

He admires his winter ones, in which finely selected shades perfectly miraculously recreate various natural states - from the resistance of frost in the spring, the crystal freshness of a snowy morning to the mysterious silence of a late winter evening. The snow cover in the artist's paintings makes it possible to feel the structure of snow, the graininess of its slender crystals.

Landscapes by Russian artist Viktor Bykov popular both in their native Fatherland and abroad (private collections in France and Germany). The artist's reproductions are used in decorative design, even when creating patterns for embroidery. And who knows, perhaps we come across Viktor’s work much more often, unintentionally, incognito, without attaching much importance to this or mentally attaching ourselves to dreams of colorful landscapes of the Russian land and its talented artists.

At the end of the post, watch a wonderful video about the classic landscapes of Russian artists:

Lev Kamenev (1833 - 1886) "Landscape with a hut"

Landscape, as an independent genre of painting, established itself in Russia around the middle of the 18th century. And before this period, the landscape was the background for the image of icon compositions or part of book illustrations.

A lot has been written about the Russian landscape of the 19th century and such, without exaggeration, great experts in the field of painting wrote that I, in essence, have nothing to add.

The pioneers of Russian landscape painting are called Semyon Shchedrin, Fyodor Alekseev and Fyodor Matveev. All these artists studied painting in Europe, which left a certain imprint on their future work.

Shchedrin (1749 - 1804) gained fame as the author of works depicting imperial country parks. Alekseev (1753 - 1824) was nicknamed the Russian Canaletto for landscapes depicting architectural monuments of St. Petersburg, Gatchina and Pavlovsk, Moscow. Matveev (1758 - 1826) worked most of his life in Italy and wrote in the spirit of his teacher Hackert. The works of this talented Italian artist were also imitated by M.M. Ivanov (1748 - 1828).

Experts note two stages in the development of Russian landscape painting of the 19th century, which are not organically connected with each other, but are clearly distinguishable. These two steps are:

realistic;
romantic.

The boundary between these areas was clearly formed by the mid-20s of the XIX century. By the middle of the eighteenth century, Russian painting began to free itself from the rationalism of classical painting of the XVIII century. And Russian romanticism, as a separate phenomenon in Russian painting, is of great importance in these changes.

The Russian romantic landscape developed in three directions:

urban landscape based on works from nature;
the study of Russian nature on the basis of "Italian soil";
Russian national landscape.

And now I invite you to the gallery of works by Russian artists of the 19th century who painted landscapes. I took just one piece from each artist - otherwise this gallery was just endless.

If you have a desire, then you can read about the work of each artist (and, accordingly, recall the work of the artist) on this site.

Russian landscapes of the 19th century

Vladimir Muravyov (1861 - 1940), Blue Forest