Ostroukhov Ilya Semenovich (1858-1929)

Nature is so generous and versatile gave Ostroukhov that painting was only one of the stages in his life. Nevertheless, he managed to create such a memorable images of Russian nature that will be remembered in the history of Russian art. Contemporaries at one time (in the late 1880's - early 1890's.) Pinned great hopes on him than I. Levitan .

Ostroukhov came from a very wealthy merchant family, has received an excellent education, he knew three foreign languages ​​and played the piano. In his youth, fond of natural history, and gathered such a large collection of samples of the flora and fauna of central Russia that "the young naturalist known not only Russian scientists, but also European" ( Valentin Serov ).

Ostroukhov first picked up a brush in twenty-one. At first he worked alone, then the advice I. Repin , I. Shishkin , in the early 1880s. spent two winters in St. Petersburg, a student of the famous academic Professor Pavel Chistyakov.
in mid-1880. Ostroukhov already succeeds. His paintings of the "Golden Autumn" (1886-87), "First Green" (1887-88) - "mood landscapes" as Levitan, but without the sense of drama Levitanovsky being. Here there is the beauty of life, but without melancholy. The most famous painting "Siverko" (1890). This is a panoramic landscape with a high horizon line. Depicts a turn of the river with a sandy steep bank, wood strip away running down the rows of gray skies, low clouds and ripples on the water from sudden gusts of cold wind.

The new motif, the high degree of generality, unexpectedly powerful expression of feelings that rise in the human soul from contact with the vital forces of nature, - all this made the picture Ostroukhova significant phenomenon in the paintings of the late XIX century. Pavel Tretyakov, was "Siverko" the best scenery of the gallery.

Sequels were not. Ostroukhov as if everything said. He leaves the painting is almost entirely carried away by the gathering. After the death Tretyakov he became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Gallery. He also creates his own remarkable collection, which was a lovely picture on the artistic level of Russian artists of XVIII and XIX centuries. and a unique collection of ancient icons. Ostroukhova - artist, collector, art historian and expert public figure and eccentric - known in Moscow all. Thus, although his collection and nationalized after the revolution, his house in the alley Trubnikovsky special decree declared a museum iconography and painting them. Ostroukhov, and the owner of the house was a lifelong keeper of his treasures. Unfortunately, after his death, the collection sold by the largest museums in Moscow and Leningrad.