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Romanticism was founded in Britain the late 1700’s, the style spread around Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. The movement focused on emphasizing emotion through the dramatic positioning of bodies or the accentuating light features in landscapes. Ivan Shishkin was a well-known and cherished Russian romantic landscape painter, who died at his canvas in 1898. Completing thousands of works, “Morning in a Pine Forest” came to be one of his most famous pieces.
Igor Dubovoy, a contemporary Russian landscape painter, twists the traditional painting style through using watercolours as opposed to oil paints. His work “Blue Winter” is painted in monochromatic blues portraying nature, as opposed to most other works depicting buildings and boats. The two works “Morning in a Pine Forest” and “Blue Winter” whilst vastly different, both examine the notion of nature in the Romantic style.
Romanticism emphasizes the sense and emotion in the artists paintings, whilst realism was to focus on everyday life, such as paintings of commoners working. Romanticism was developed in the late 1700’s, although the style flourished and spread during the late 18th and early 19th century, artists often created landscapes with accentuated lighting, giving works a strong sense of feeling. This could also be achieved in the unnatural pose’s bodies sat in, creating a dramatic scene for the viewer. However, artists didn’t call themselves romantics until the German scholar and critic, Schlegel’s lecture defined the difference between the organic and unnatural characteristics of romanticism.
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There were varying types of romantic artists such as Eugène Delacroix who created oil on canvas pieces, capturing sorrow, bloodshed and death in his paintings. This was achieved through the exaggeration of bodies in some of his pieces which were to lay dramatically over tables or one another. Another artist such as Ivan Aivazovsky who worked in the same style, created much different works which emphasized the aggression of water and storms in the ocean. Aivazovsky achieved this through the colour used to depict the sky, the tipping of the ships and the enhanced size of the waves that sat below.
Ivan Shishkin was a Russian landscape painter who worked mostly with oil on canvas while also having completed numbers of drawings, studies and engravings. Shishkin took on the names “the forest hero” and “king of the forest” after his much-loved painted landscapes. He studied in Moscow school of painting and sculpture in 1856-1860 and continued studying at St. Petersburg in the academy of arts, winning awards and receiving a major gold medal for two of his pieces. He then continued to study in Germany, Switzerland, Czech, France, Belgium and Holland for three years before returning to Russia. Shishkin married twice and had children, all of which would pass on. Shishkin would always create artworks that portrayed life and happiness before he passed at the age of 66 in 1898.
Unlike Shishkin, Igor Dubovoy’s interests lied in watercolour as he finds the complexity and technicality of the paintings a pleasing result. His love for art stemmed from his childhood, though not undertaking any special practices in the creative area. As well as Shishkin, Dubovoy was born in Moscow, Russia in 1972. Dubovoy takes his inspiration from his travels around the world and live reference of buildings. He’s participated in several exhibitions from 2015, running through to 2018 where he exhibited in the Museum of Russian Art New York USA.
Shishkin’s most famous painting, “Morning in a pine forest” is painted in oil on canvas and stands at 1.39m by 2.13m, completed in 1889. It features three bear cubs and a mother, playing on fallen logs in a morning lit forest. The soft glow of the morning sunrise conveys the feeling that it’s going to be a warm spring day, whilst the depths of the forest convey the change in seasons (exiting winter). Shishkin utilises an organic colour scheme (greens, browns, ect) to create the forest scene.
The soft strokes used to create the piece convey the romantic style. Whereas Dubovoy’s “Blue Winter” watercolour painting on 300gsm paper, completed in 2019, depicts a snow-covered forest. The monochromatic palette gives a bold statement that it is winter and does well to contrast the dark blues from the light, clearly depicting snow and trees and successfully creating depth with the one colour. Despite this, the artist manages to capture a sense of warmth in the painting with the glistening light bounces off the snow, along with very small hints of oranges in the shadows which go almost unseen.
Additionally, he has been able to capture a sense of closure as the trees lean towards one another and a small slope connects the two. This makes the viewer feel as though they are secure and protected, as opposed to Shishkin’s painting as he portrays an open woodland with a cub looking into its depths, as if it’s looking at something. This gives the painting a much more open feeling, as if the viewer was passing by.
Line is utilised in Shishkin’s work, through the fallen logs and the placement of bears, which emphasize the artists goal of the creating a focal point. The logs help to connect the cubs and mother, forming a triangle. The remains of the log are shown fallen on the bottom right of the work. A cub stands on this fallen log and contrasts with the background, giving it a glowing appearance. This ensures the painting isn’t oversaturated with deep natural hues and allows the painting to be broken up, although, in Dubovoy’s work, logs lean inward as well as light travelling through the leaves on an angle, creating a larger focal point.
This helps to achieve a sense of movement as though a soft breeze rustles through the leaves. The blues used in “Blue Winter” convey a feeling of sadness and isolation, whilst the organic greens, browns and yellows in “Morning in a Pine Forest” give the piece a warm natural feeling. The textures in “Morning in a Pine Forest” accentuate the realistic values of the piece and help in creating a distinctive feature for each tree. Contrast is conveyed through rim lighting and the yellow glow of the sunrise, emphasizing the romantic ideals of the piece. Meanwhile in “Blue Winter”, Dubovoy creates a soft surface to represent snow, hiding the detail in the trees with the dark contrast.
Interpretation
(how did they show features of romanticism)
“Morning in a Pine Forest” portrays a warm morning sunrise with a family of bears, which emphasized the organic values of a pine forest. The placement of bears with their playful attitude captures a moment as though it were taken out of a fairy tale. Shishkin would often highlight tranquil features in a painting as he wanted to create uplifting paintings as opposed to dark and disturbed. “Blue Winter” encapsulated a calm, yet cold sensation in the painting, as the monochromatic colour scheme felt almost as though there were variants of colour. The painting looked as though it may be inspired by Picasso’s blue period. Although straying away from the original media, Dubovoy did well to capture a moment in time, as though the viewer had found a new place to explore.
Both “Morning in a Pine Forest” and “Blue Winter” portray varying features of Romanticism. While Shishkin depicts a warm fairy tale like forest, Dubovoy contrasts that with a cold monochromatic forest. His enhanced light creates a fantasy-like glow which bounces off the snow. Despite straying from traditions, Dubovoy has done well to capture subtle movement in his organic lines, allowing the painting to show realistic value, although containing the theme of romanticism. However, Shishkin’s warm glow captured within this spring morning painting, following the playful positioning of the bear cubs, allow the artist to best represent romanticism. It’s as though Shishkin has frozen a moment in time and enhanced features to create a dreamlike setting.
Bibliography
- https://www.theartstory.org/movement-romanticism.htm
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/August-Wilhelm-von-Schlegel
- https://arthive.com/ivanshishkin/works/267053~Morning_in_a_pine_forest
- https://www.dubovoy.net/obo-mne-about-me
- https://www.saatchiart.com/dubovoy
