''Rye'' (russian: Рожь), sometimes ''A Rye Field'', is an oil painting of 1878 by the Russian painter Ivan Shishkin. It depicts a field of

rye Rye (''Secale cereale'') is a grass grown extensively as a grain, a cover crop and a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe ( Triticeae) and is closely related to both wheat (''Triticum'') and barley (genus ''Hordeum''). Rye grain is ...

near the village of , west of

Yelabuga Yelabuga (alternative spelling that reflects the Cyrillic spelling: Elabuga; russian: Елабуга; tt-Cyrl, Алабуга, ''Alabuğa'') is a town in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, located on the right bank of the Kama River and eas ...

Tatarstan The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...

. It measures and is held by the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, ''Gosudarstvennaya Tretyâkovskaya Galereya''; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered th ...

. Shishkin was born in 1832 into a Russian merchant family in

, then in

Vyatka Governorate Vyatka Governorate (russian: Вятская губерния, udm, Ватка губерний, mhr, Виче губерний, tt-Cyrl, Вәтке губернасы) was a governorate of the Russian Empire and Russian SFSR, with its capital ...

(today the

Republic of Tatarstan The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...

), beside the

Kama River The Kama (russian: Ка́ма, ; tt-Cyrl, Чулман, ''Çulman''; udm, Кам) is a long«Река � ...

some {{cvt, 200, km east of

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering ...

. As with many of his works, this painting draws from the countryside near his early home. It include two common elements from Shishkin's work: pine trees, and a road leading away from the viewer. Two earlier works in the collection of the Tretyakov, made by Shishkin in the 1860s, show travellers among fields of rye. Шишкин

The work is based on a pencil sketch of a field of

near Lekarevo, which the artist made during a trip with his daughter in 1877, on which he wrote "Эта" (Russian for 'this one'). Notes on another sketch reveal his thoughts: "Раздолье, простор, угодье. Рожь. Божья благодать. Русское богатство" ('Expanse, space, land. Rye. God's grace. Russian wealth') The painting depicts a field of ripening yellow

among scattered pine trees, ripening under a hazy blue summer sky, but with threatening clouds in the distance. A country track leads off into the field, with the tiny heads of two people barely visible amid the rye. A

swallow The swallows, martins, and saw-wings, or Hirundinidae, are a family of passerine songbirds found around the world on all continents, including occasionally in Antarctica. Highly adapted to aerial feeding, they have a distinctive appearance. The ...

swoops past the wildflowers beside the track. The large trees amid the crops are survivors of the forest cleared to make the field. The painting is signed and dated in the lower right corner, "И. Шишкинъ. 1878" ('I. Shishkin. 1878'). The completed work was exhibited at the sixth exhibition of the

Peredvizhniki Peredvizhniki ( rus, Передви́жники, , pʲɪrʲɪˈdvʲiʐnʲɪkʲɪ), often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realist artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restr ...

(Russian for 'the Wanderers') in 1878. It was bought that year by

Pavel Tretyakov Pavel Mikhaylovich Tretyakov (russian: Па́вел Миха́йлович Третьяко́в; 27 December 1832 – 16 December 1898) was a Russian businessman, patron of art, collector, and philanthropist who gave his name to the Tretyakov G ...

, whose collection has grown into the Tretyakov Gallery. Дорога во ржи (Шишкин).jpg, Ivan Shishkin, ''Дорога во ржи'' ('Road in rye'), 1866 Shishkin Polden Okrestnosti Moskvy.jpg, Ivan Shishkin, ''Полдень. В окрестностях Москвы'' ('Noon. Neighbourhood of Moscow'), 1869 Hall N25 Tretyakov gallery - Shishkin 01 by shakko.jpg, Shishkin's works in room N25 at the Tretyakov Gallery, including ''Rye'' to the right

References

Tretyakov Gallery

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1878 paintings Collections of the Tretyakov Gallery Russian paintings