Sylvester
Feodosievich Shchedrin

The son of a famous sculptor F. F. Shchedrin, a nephew of the landscape painter Seeds Shchedrin. In 1800 was enrolled in an Educational school at the Academy of fine arts. After graduating from the school (1811), received the right to "pensionerstvo" abroad. In connection with the war of 1812, his trip was delayed, and he arrived in Rome in 1818. Lived in Naples, then in Rome. Finally (1825) settled still in Naples, the summer is often bumping to work in small towns on the coast of the Tyrrhenian sea.

Off. Shchedrin was destined to become an artist: his father was a prominent sculptor, and his uncle, Sam. Shchedrin - landscape painter. In 1800, he was enrolled in an Educational school AH, 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 the war of 1812, and only in 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 for the soul and countless motives for painting.

He has worked on location, which was uncommon at the time, and, perhaps more alive than trying to capture the visible, began to get rid of memorized rules. Still the tumultuous events that unfolded 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. The Castle Of The Holy Angel" (1823). It was a success and spawned a lot of imitators later. Shchedrin himself for wanting to buy an 8 (or even 10) options - not just repeating and varying the time of day, detail, angle and point of view. But his main theme was nature.

Working during the summer outside the city, he wrote the 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 stay in Italy for some time - now an independent artist, the benefit of his work was a demand that he barely had time to meet.

In 1825, Shchedrin was back in Naples. There he mainly spent his time in the colder months, and warmer - painted from life in small towns along the coast of the Tyrrhenian sea. He was especially attracted to the rocky shore surrounding the small cozy Bay, - he wrote them many times, finding new places, repeatedly returning to the beloved and discovering in them something unfamiliar ("a View of Sorrento near Naples, Amalfi, near Naples," both in 1826; "the Grotto, Matrimonio 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 close to him the ideal of the harmonious life in Union with the grace of nature.

Little by little, in the work of Shchedrin permeates the drama, previously alien to him. He began to write night landscapes with the disturbing light of the moon peeking from behind the clouds and 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, which troubled him more often.

He tried to cure with mineral water, changed doctors, in desperation, appealed for help to some charlatans, but no one was able to help. After the death of the artist's friends made efforts to have his picture appeared in Russia. However, many of their attempts have not crowned success, and we know only a part of the creative heritage of Shchedrin.