Based on the data of the first biographers of Vasiliev, it is considered (although no documents on the place and date of birth of F. A. Vasiliev have been found) that he was born on February 10 (22), 1850 in Gatchina (now Leningrad region) in the family of a small postal official from St. Petersburg.
Portrait of the artist F. A. Vasiliev
works by I. N. Kramskoy. 1871
At the age of twelve, he was sent to serve in the main post office, where he received 3 rubles of salary per month. From early childhood he showed abilities and interest in drawing. He left the service and entered the Drawing School of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts in St. Petersburg (1865-1868), at that time he combined classes at school in the evenings with work with a restorer from the Academy of Arts P. K. Sokolov. By the end of his studies, Vasiliev entered the environment of famous artists, especially became close to Kramskoy, as well as Shishkin, whose wife was his sister. An important event during this period for the young artist was his trip to the island of Valaam, where he worked with Shishkin for more than five months: from June to late autumn of 1867. A lot of sketches and sketches made there, as well as paintings completed later ("After the Rain", "Village Yard" and "IN the church fence Valaam", all - 1867) reveal Vasiliev's lyrical perception of Russian nature[2]. In 1869, Vasiliev made a trip to Tambov province, to the estate of Count P. S. Stroganov, the village of Znamenskoye (in summer), and to Ukraine, also to the estate of P. S. Stroganov, the village of Khoten (in autumn). These trips played a favorable role in the development of the artist's original talent.
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