For Shishkin, just as for his contemporaries, Russian nature is inseparable from the idea of Russia, its nation and its fate. With the Pine Wood, the artist defines his main theme – a powerful, majestic Russian forest. The master creates a theatrical scene, offering us some kind of a “show”. His choice of the time of day is not random – noon is given as an image of Russia full of dormant inner forces. The art critic V.V. Stasov called Shishkin’s paintings “landscapes for epic heroes”. At the same time, the artist aims for the most accurate, “scientific” approach to depiction. His friend I.N. Kramskoi, the artist, remarked on this as follows: “The forest is dense and the stream is of chalybeate, dark yellow water that reveals its whole stone-scattered bottom…” They said of Shishkin: “He is a convinced realist, a realist to the marrow of his bones, who profoundly feels nature and loves it dearly …”
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow