Rye Fields

Rye Fields is an oil on canvas that Ivan Shishkin completed in 1878, showing a field of rye near Lekarevo, close to Yelabuga, the town where the painter was born in 1832 and which was then part of Vyatka Governorate. Shishkin based the work on a pencil sketch made during a trip with his daughter in 1877, on which he wrote the word for 'this one', suggesting the scene held his attention from the start. A note in another sketchbook shows what he admired: expanse, open land, abundance, and a sense of Russian wealth. The picture presents ripening yellow grain under a hazy summer sky, with storm clouds gathering in the distance. A country track runs into the field, where two tiny figures are just visible among the stalks. The tall pines standing among the crops are remnants of the forest that was cleared to make room for the field. First shown at the sixth Peredvizhniki exhibition, it was bought that year by Pavel Tretyakov, whose collection became the Tretyakov Gallery.

Painter

Ivan Shishkin

Date

1878

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

107 × 187 cm

Museum

Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Genre

landscape painting

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