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Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Fyodor Vasiliev

Fyodor Vasiliev. Self-Portrait. 1873


Fyodor Vasiliev was a Russian landscape painter. He lived a short life, but his contribution to Russian art is great. The artist left wonderful pictures of his native nature, where truthfulness is combined with subtle, soulful lyricism. In his landscapes there is always a living excitement of the artist, who was in love with the beauty of nature.
Contemporaries, and later researchers saw Vasiliev as an artist who could make a huge revolution in all landscape painting.
The boy was born on February 10 (22), 1850 in Gatchina (now Leningrad Region) into the family of a small postal official from St. Petersburg.
At the age of twelve he was sent to serve in the main post office. Since his early childhood he showed his ability and interest in drawing. The boy quit his service and went to study at the Drawing School in Petersburg (1865-1868). By the end of his studies Vasiliev had become friends with Kramskoi and Shishkin.
An important event for the young artist was his trip to the island of Valaam. Fyodor along with I. Shishkin worked there for more than five months: from June until late autumn of 1867. In 1869 Vasiliev traveled to Tambov province, to the estate of Count P.S. Stroganov, the village of Znamenskoe (in the summer), and to the Ukraine. Those trips played a favorable role in the development of the artist’s original talent.

In 1870 Vasiliev together with artists I. Repin and E. Makarov traveled along the Volga. They sailed along the great river from Tver to Saratov.
Upon returning from the trip Vasiliev created the picture Thaw. The painting immediately became an event in Russian artistic life and was shown at the 1872 World Exhibition in London.
Abandoned Mill. Fyodor Vasiliev

Abandoned Mill. 1871-1873


While working on the painting Thaw, in the winter of 1870, Vasilyev caught a severe cold, he had tuberculosis.
Count P.S. Stroganov invited the artist to spent the summer of 1871 in his estates in the Kharkov and Voronezh provinces, but he never recovered. Society for the Encouragement of Arts gave him money to travel to the Crimea. There Vasiliev spent the last two years of his life.
During that period, he created many drawings (pencil, watercolor, sepia) and paintings. The central work was a large picture In the Crimean Mountains (1873, the Tretyakov Gallery). In the Crimea, Vasiliev painted significant paintings: Morning, The Abandoned Mill, The swamp in the forest. Autumn (1873), Wet Meadow (1872, the Tretyakov Gallery). The artist worked a lot and this did not contribute to recovery and led to a tragic end.
Talented artist died on September 24 (October 6), 1873 in Yalta. The grave is located there, at the Polikurovsky cemetery. Vasiliev was an exceptionally gifted artist, one of the most talented Russian landscape painters, who left a deep mark in Russian art.
Source: nikole-t.livejournal.com

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Abandoned Mill 1871-1873

Abandoned Mill by Fyodor Vasiliev. 1871-1873

After the rain. Fyodor Vasiliev

After the rain. 1867-1869

After the Storm Fyodor Vasiliev

After the Storm 1868

vasiliev Dawn, 1873

Dawn, 1873

vasiliev Eriklik, Crimea. 1872

Eriklik, Crimea. 1872

vasiliev Evening in the Crimea. 1871-1873

Evening in the Crimea. 1871-1873

vasiliev In the church grounds. 1867

In the church grounds. 1867

Landscape with rock and stream Fyodor Vasiliev

Landscape with rock and stream .1867

vasiliev The village, 1869

The village, 1869

vasiliev View on the Volga. Barki

View on the Volga. Barki, 1870

vasiliev Wet Meadow. 1872

Wet Meadow. 1872

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Dawn in St. Petersburg. 1870

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Evening. 1869-1871

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Gatchina.1850-1873

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Illuminations in St. Petersburg

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

In the Crimean mountains. 1873

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

On a steamship. Return from the pilgrimage

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

On the island of Valaam. 1869

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Peasant family in a boat. 1870

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Portrait of the artist Fedor Alexandrovich Vasilyev

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Rural house. 1863

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Sheds. 1870

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

Thaw. 1871

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

The hut

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

The swamp in the forest. Autumn. 1872

Fyodor Vasiliev, Russian artist

The Volga lagoon. 1870