The Ivan Shishkin House Museum is located in a two-storey building on Embankment Street. This house was built by Yelabuga merchant Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin, who did a lot for the development of his hometown. On January 13, 1832, his son was born, who was also named Ivan. He became one of the most famous Russian artists, Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin.
Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin was born in 1792 and belonged to an ancient family of Vyatka grain merchants. This genus has existed for over 300 years. In his youth, he was interested in the development and repair of mechanisms. Because of this, he was nicknamed "Elabuga Kulibin". In 1819, Ivan Shishkin married the daughter of a Kazan bourgeois, Daria Kirkina, who bore him six children.
Ivan Shishkin was twice elected mayor of Yelabuga, and did a lot for the development of the city. In 1833, he laid a water supply system in the city according to his own design. Its pipes were made of larch and supplied the houses with spring water until the 1950s. Yelabuga became one of the first cities in Russia to have a water supply system. The very first water pipe in Russia was made in Moscow in 1804.
Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin laid out a park at the foot of the Embankment Street, which was named Shishkin Ponds. He also recreated the main historical landmark: the stone tower of the 10th century Bulgarian fortress on the Devil`s Hillfort. He took a personal part in the excavations and restoration.
Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin built the house on the high bank of the Toyma River, on Embankment Street, in 1832. The childhood years of the future artist Ivan Shishkin were spent in that house. His father encouraged and helped develop his artistic talents. The boy spent a lot of time in his room, drawing.
In 1850, a strong fire occurred in Yelabuga, which burned out most of the city. Shishkin`s house was also severely damaged. After that, my father rebuilt it. The house acquired the features of a cozy two-storey mansion that has survived to the present day. The future artist Ivan Shishkin designed this house, in those years he was already 18 years old.
In 1852, Ivan Shishkin went to study at the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, and in 1857 entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. His works were highly appreciated during the artist`s lifetime. He achieved very high proficiency in painting landscapes, as well as the art of engraving.
In adulthood, he lived for a long time in Zurich and Dusseldorf, but then returned to Russia. He built a manor house in the village of Vyra near Gatchina. Ivan Shishkin visited his native home in Yelabuga, first to his parents, and then to his brothers and sisters. Nowadays Ivan Shishkin is recognized as one of the greatest landscape painters among Russian artists. In the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, you can see his famous paintings "Rye" (1878), "Morning in the Pine Forest" (1889) and others. More than 10 works by Shishkin can be seen in the Russian Museum of St. Petersburg. His paintings are in almost all art museums in Russia.
The Memorial House-Museum of Ivan Shishkin in his native Yelabuga was established in 1962. A total of 16 halls can be visited in the museum. On the ground floor, the interiors of a 19th-century merchant`s estate, where the large Shishkin family lived, have been recreated. Furniture from the first half of the 19th century can be seen in all the halls.
In the house you can see the Large and Small Living Rooms, the study of Ivan Vasilyevich Shishkin, the dining room and the children`s rooms. On the second floor there is a room of Ivan Shishkin, where he studied drawing. The interior of the room is recreated from the drawings of the artist himself. Also on the second floor there is an art gallery, which has five original paintings by Ivan Shishkin, including his very first painting "Harvest".
