“Morning in a pine forest” by Ivan Shishkin

The forest landscape with bear cubs playing on a fallen tree is perhaps the most famous work of the artist. Here are just the landscape design idea Ivan Shishkin suggested another artist – Konstantin Savitsky. He also wrote a bear with three bear cubs: bears could not succeed in the forest shishkin’s connoisseur.
Shishkin was immaculately versed in the forest flora, noticed the slightest mistakes in the drawings of his students — either the birch bark or the pine tree looked like a fake one. However, people and animals in his works have always been rare. Here Savitsky came to the rescue. Incidentally, he left several preparatory drawings and sketches with the cubs – he was looking for suitable poses. “Morning in a pine forest” was not originally “Morning”: the painting “Bear family in the forest” was called, and there were only two bears on it. As co-author Savitsky put on the canvas and his signature.
When the canvas was delivered to the merchant Pavel Tretyakov, he was indignant: he paid for Shishkin (he ordered the author’s work), and received Shishkin and Savitsky. Shishkin, as an honest man, did not attribute authorship to himself. But Tretyakov went to the principle and Savitsky’s signature was blasphemously erased with a picture of turpentine. Savitsky later nobly rejected copyright, and the bears were attributed to Shishkin for a long time.
“Portrait of a chorus girl” Konstantin Korovin
The Letter disarmed with directness and bold challenge to the entire artistic community: “Serov had not yet painted portraits at that time” – but he wrote them, Konstantin Korovin. And he allegedly was the first to use techniques characteristic of that style, which would later be called Russian impressionism. But it all turned out to be a myth that the artist created intentionally.
The slender theory “Korovin – the forerunner of Russian impressionism” was mercilessly destroyed by objective technical and technological research. On the front side of the portrait, the artist’s signature was found in paint, just below – with ink: “1883, Kharkov”. In Kharkov, the artist worked in May-June 1887: he painted the scenery for performances of the Russian Private Opera Mamontov. In addition, art historians have found that the “Portrait of the chorus girl” was made in a certain artistic manner – a la prima. This technique of oil painting allows you to write a picture in one session. Korovin began using this technique only in the late 1880s.
After analyzing these two inconsistencies, the staff of the Tretyakov Gallery came to the conclusion that the portrait was written only in 1887, and Korovin wrote an earlier date to emphasize his own innovation.
“The man and the cradle” of Ivan Yakimov
For a long time, the picture of Ivan Yakimov “Man and the cradle” caused bewilderment of art historians. And it wasn’t even the case that this kind of household sketches are absolutely not typical for painting of the XVIII century – the rocking horse in the lower right corner of the picture is too unnaturally stretched rope, which would logically have to lie on the floor. Yes, and it was too early for a child to play such toys from a cradle. Also, the fireplace and half did not fit on the canvas, which looked very strange.
“Enlightened” the situation – in the literal sense – a radiograph. She showed that the canvas was cut right and top.
The picture came into the Tretyakov Gallery after the sale of Pavel Petrovich Tugogo-Svinin collection. He owned the so-called “Russian Museum” – a collection of paintings, sculptures and antiques. But in 1834, due to financial problems, the collection had to be sold – and the painting “Man and the Cradle” got into the Tretyakov Gallery: not all, but only its left half. Unfortunately, the right one was lost, but you can still see the work entirely, thanks to another unique exhibit of the Tretyakov Gallery. The full version of Yakimov’s work was found in the album “Collection of excellent works of Russian artists and curious domestic antiquities”, which contains drawings from most of the paintings that were part of the collection of Svinin.