Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich - painter and collector

Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich - an artist of the late XIX and early XX century. The main theme in the work is the Russian landscape. The artist loved the middle belt of Russia and in the 90s he wrote three particularly famous landscapes, which we'll talk about further.

Some information about the artist

Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich (1858-1929) was born in a wealthy merchant family. He was given an excellent education. The desire to paint came to him after he saw the canvas of V. D. Polenov "Moscow Courtyard". By this time he was already twenty years old.

Academic education Ilya Semenovich did not want to receive. It was too late to start serious work, but Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich began to take lessons from I. Repin. Classes were successful, and soon he worked with VM Vasnetsov, and later with V. Serov.

The artist himself was dissatisfied with early landscapes. He painted his paintings in the open air, and when he fell ill with old age, he worked on the etudes already available to him. This technique he adopted from VD Polenov, whom he considered his teacher, although he did not take lessons directly from him. When Ostroukhov began to work at full strength, he was called a "genius self-taught." In 1886, he exhibited his new work "Golden Autumn" and immediately received universal recognition. Particularly important was the fact that it was acquired for his collection by PM Tretyakov.

As an artist, Ilya Semyonovich did not work long. He was carried away by social activities, and after his marriage he completely disappeared from practical painting, engaged in collecting. He collected paintings of outstanding Russian and Western European artists, as well as icons, sculptures, antique, Egyptian, Chinese, Japanese works of literature. He had a magnificent library, which included 12,000 volumes.

The tragic end

After 1917, the collection became the property of the state, and Ilya Semenovich became her keeper. But then in 1929, sick and half-blinded, as a former merchant and tea-seller, they were deprived of electoral rights. He died in Moscow, and his grave is at the Danilov cemetery. No less tragically ended his wife's life, expelled and lost shelter over his head. She finished her life in one of the cellars of Moscow. Soviet power, which took away from Ostroukhov the entire collection, did not give him or his wife the worthy end of his life.

Ilya Semenovich Ostroukhov: "The Golden Autumn" (1886)

In the forest, more like a park, a narrow path is laid, which divides the canvas in half. On it sit two magpie-white-bears, who are serenely busy with their own affairs, since no one is here. Otherwise, these birds would take off and raise a hubbub.

There is silence in the forest. Not a breeze. Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich painted trees covered with gold leaves. They calmly drop them on the eve of autumn rains and storms. In the foreground are the young maples that have grown over the past summer. Their foliage is yellowish-greenish. Among them, the black earth is a little overlooked. Two maples on the right, with thick dark trunks and thin branches, keep the golden-red and golden-green leaves carefully painted by the artist. Through the crowns you can see the cold autumn sky. It is pale, grayish-blue.

In the background, there are quaintly twisted trunks of three old trees. They are also covered with golden foliage that shines, pleasing to the eye. But it is far away and is covered with a light haze. Behind these trunks grayish-brown shadows go into the depths of the forest.

The landscape of Ilya Ostroukhov "Golden Autumn" evokes poetic feelings, a desire to admire the beauty of Russian autumn, to recollect poems dedicated to autumn. "There is a maple leaf on the branch, now it's just like a new one! It's all ruddy, golden ..." (Verses by Berestov VD).

Another landscape

Ilya Semenovich Ostroukhov's paintings depict other seasons. Spring on his canvas is just beginning. The hillock was already covered with dense soft soft greenery. Part of the trees in the distance, a small grove has already turned green young foliage, and birches in the foreground have not yet dressed it.

On the other side of the meandering blue rivulet there is a forest in the haze. The sky is pale, the sun is not visible. But the nature has come to life and is waiting for the approach of warm rains, so that everything will blossom and blossom. It is a quiet homeland, an invariable harmonious Russian landscape.

Summer on canvas

Again, the usual sight, pleasant to the Russian look - a river, covered with water lilies and sedge, lush willows on the other shore ... They are reflected in the blue water. And around is a vast expanse - green hills and rolling. Into the distance a dense forest leaves. The sky as usual with Ilya Semenovich is not bright, with cumulus clouds that almost always close the sun. This is the picture of Ostroukhov "The River at Noon" (1892).

"Siverko" (1890)

This work is considered the best in the legacy of the painter. The panorama of the landscape is modest, but it creates a monumental image of Russian nature. PM Tretyakov believed that this was one of his best acquisitions.

The canvas depicts the bend of a river under the sky with heavy, gloomy, pressing clouds. On the right side there are steep sandy beaches, which are covered with grass. Rare flowers bloom in it. On the other side there is a sandbank. The river is covered with ripples from the cold north wind, which is called "siverko". Two seagulls flashed above it.

The color of the river is unusual. Lilac-blue color gives off cold, because it reflects the cold sky. In the distance one can see a sandy island covered with grass. Panorama in the distance on the horizon is a dark forest with crenellations, for which gray clouds clinging to cold showers. The thickening silence foreshadows a storm, from which the forest pushes away and centuries-old trees will crumble.

Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich painted with love to the pristine nature, untouched by human hand. She pleases and delights with her appearance.