Ilya
Semenovich Ostroukhov

Born in 1858, the started Painting self-taught, using only a few instructions A. Kiseleva , Polenov and Repin . Began to exhibit in 1885 "Levitanovskie", gently elegiac motifs prevail in the works of Ostroukhov. In the Tretyakov gallery are his "Golden autumn", "nature's First green", "Siverko", "Spring" and "St. Mark's Square in Venice". He has written, with S. Glagolin, the text for the publication Knebel: "the Tretyakov gallery" (Moscow, 1909).

Russian painter, an itinerant. Emotional images of Russian nature. A collector of Russian painting and icons, they are subsequently transferred to the Tretyakov gallery.

Nature has so generously endowed and versatile Ostroukhov that painting was only one of the stages in his life. Nevertheless, he managed to create such memorable images of Russian nature that forever entered the history of Russian art.

Ostroukhov came from a wealthy merchant family received an excellent education, knew three foreign languages, played the piano. In his youth he was fond of science, and gathered a sizeable collection of samples of flora and fauna of Central Russia, "about a young naturalist knew not only Russian scientists, but also European" (V. Serov).

For the first time Ostroukhov picked up a brush in twenty-one years. First worked independently, then used the tips of I. E. Repin, I. I. Shishkin, in the early 1880s, two winters spent in St. Petersburg, a disciple of the famous academic Professor p. P. Chistyakov.

In the mid-1880s Ostroukhov already achieves success. His painting "Golden autumn" (1886-87), "nature's First green" (1887-88) -"landscapes of mood" as Levitan, Levitan but without a sense of the drama of existence. 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, a strip of woodland in the distance, running through the sky grey, low clouds and the ripples on the water against sudden gusts of cold wind. A new motive, a high degree of generality, suddenly, a powerful expression of feelings that well up in the human soul from contact with the living forces of nature, - all this made a picture Ostroukhova significant phenomenon in the painting of the late XIX century. Pavel Tretyakov believed Siverko best view the gallery.

Continue was not. Ostroukhov as if all said. He almost leaves the painting, fascinated by the gathering. After Tretyakov's death he became a member of the Board of Trustees of the gallery. He creates also own a wonderful collection, which was lovely on an artistic level paintings of Russian artists of XVIII and XIX centuries and a unique collection of ancient Russian icons.

Ostroukhova - artist, collector, art historian, expert, public figure, and odd knew everything in Moscow. Therefore, although his collection was nationalized after the revolution, his house in Trubnikovsky lane special resolution announced by the Museum of iconography and painting them. I. S. Ostroukhov, and the owner remained in the house of life the Keeper of his treasures. Unfortunately, after his death the collection was sold by the largest museums of Moscow and Leningrad.