Feodosievich Sylvester Shchedrin (1791-1830)

Sylvie. Shchedrin was destined to become an artist: his father was a prominent sculptor, and his uncle, Sam. Shchedrin - a landscape painter. In 1800, he was enrolled in an educational school of Arts, excellent student, specializing in landscape painting, and completed a full course with a gold medal and the right to pensionerstvo overseas.

From abroad, however, had to wait because of the outbreak of war in 1812, and until June 1818, he finally went to Italy. After eight months spent in Rome (where Shchedrin acquainted with the monuments of art and antiquities more out of duty than by inclination), he moved to Naples. Here, the artist has found a true joy to the soul and countless motives for painting.

He has worked on location, which was rare at the time, and, perhaps more alive than trying to capture the visible, had begun to get rid of memorized rules. Yet the political upheaval that took place in the kingdom of Naples, was forced to seek safety Shchedrin in Rome. But now he was looking at the city through different eyes, and found in it beauty.

A major achievement was the artist's painting "New Rome. Castel Sant'Angelo" (1823). It was a success and spawned a lot of imitators later. Shchedrin himself for wanting to acquire it did 8 (or even 10) of options - not just repeating and varying the time of day, detail, and the angle of view. But his main theme was nature.

Working during the summer in the country, he wrote a landscape "Lake Albano, near Rome" (1825). In this poetic work, he made a new step towards the natural, getting rid of a clear division into spatial plans and the conventions of color.

Pensionerstva term expired in 1823, but Shchedrin ventured to remain in Italy for some time - is an independent artist, his works have had the benefit of a demand that he barely had time to meet.

In 1825 Shchedrin was back in Naples. There he mostly spent his time in the cooler months, and in the warmer - painted from nature in small towns along the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. He was particularly attracted to the rocky shores surrounding the small, cozy coves, - he wrote them many times, finding more and more places, repeatedly returning to the'll love discovering something unfamiliar to them ("View of Sorrento, near Naples," "View of Amalfi, near Naples , "both in 1826," Matrimonio Grotto on the island of Capri, "1827, etc.).

The artist became interested in another motive - vine-covered terrace overlooking the sea. In numerous "Terrace", written in the years 1825-28. and also had great success, he embodied the ideal of the harmonic closest to him of life in union with the grace of nature.

Little by little, in the work of Shchedrin permeates the drama, previously foreign to him. He began writing night landscapes with disturbing the light of the moon, look through the clouds and the dark silhouettes of people gathered around the campfire ("View near Sorrento. Evening", the end of the 1820s, "Moonlit Night in Naples", 1828-29, etc.). Perhaps the reason for this was sad news from the homeland, where the artist did not dare to come back, and perhaps - a serious illness that troubled him more often.

He was trying to be treated with mineral water, changed doctors desperately sought the help of some charlatans, but no one was able to help. After his death, friends have made efforts to his paintings have appeared in Russia. However, many of their efforts have not been successful, and we know only a part of the creative heritage of Shchedrin.