Ivan Shishkin

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Ivan Shishkin (Иван Иванович Шишкин, 1832–1898) was a Russian landscape painter. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture for 4 years, then attended the Saint Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts from 1856 to 1860, graduating with the highest honors and a gold medal. Five years later Shishkin became a member of the Academy, and later a professor. At the same time, Shishkin headed the landscape painting class at the Higher Art School.

For some time, Shishkin lived and worked in Switzerland and Germany. On his return to Saint Petersburg, he became a member of the Circle of the Itinerants and of the Society of Russian Watercolorists. He also took part in exhibitions at the Academy of Arts, the All Russian Exhibition in Moscow (1882), the Nizhniy Novgorod (1896), and the World Fairs (Paris, 1867 and 1878, and Vienna,1873). Shishkin's painting method was based on analytical studies of nature. He became famous for his forest landscapes, but was also an outstanding draftsman and a printmaker.