Ivan Shishkin

Ivan Shishkin, a merchant's son from Yelabuga, studied at the Moscow School of Painting and the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, then in Germany and Switzerland. A founding member of the Peredvizhniki, he painted Russian forests with an almost botanical exactness, tree by tree and needle by needle. He was also a fine etcher and draughtsman. His best-known picture, Morning in a Pine Forest, is a joint work: the bears were painted by Konstantin Savitsky.