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Rye
Ivan Shishkin · Realism & Academic
- Artist
- Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin (1832–1898) and Konstantin Apollonovich Savitsky (1844–1905)
- Date
- 1878
- Dimensions
- 107 x 187 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Rye shows a vast field of ripe golden rye stretching to the horizon under a summer sky full of clouds. A dirt road runs through the field, and a few tall, solitary pine trees rise high above it, one of them dead and bare.
A closer look
Shishkin, the great painter of Russian forests, here celebrates the open expanse of the Russian countryside. The rye is painted with care, every stalk bending slightly in the wind, while the immense pines give the picture its monumental scale and dignity. On a sketch for the painting he wrote words that sum up its spirit: expanse, space, land, rye, God's grace, Russian wealth. The swallows flying low over the road suggest that a storm may be coming. The work was shown at the sixth exhibition of the Peredvizhniki, the 'Wanderers'.
More by Ivan Shishkin
In this gallery
Famous works elsewhere
- The Sun Lit Pines 1886
- Pine. Merikul 1894
- Road in the Pine Forest 1885
- Mast-Tree grove 1898
- Walk in the Forest 1869
- Forest distant views 1884