Despite his short life, Fedor Vasiliev's contribution to Russian art was profound: he brought soulful lyricism to the discipline of landscape painting and was widely recognised for his prominent role in the renowned artistic community, the Itinerants. His career lasted only a decade until his life was cut short at the age of 23, when he succumbed to tuberculosis. Despite this, art historians highlight his influence on the artists Isaak Levitan (1860-1900) and Valentin Serov (1865-1911), among others. As a result of his early death, Vasiliev’s oeuvre is limited and his paintings seldom appear at auction.
Born in Gatchina to a low-ranking government official, Vasiliev's early life was tough: his parents were unmarried at the time of his birth, and at the age of 12 he was sent off to work in a post office. At the age of 13 he began to take evening classes at the Drawing School of Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. His artistic fortunes took off once he became acquainted with the great landscape painter, Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898), who had become besotted with Vasiliev’s sister Evgenia Vasilieva (1847-1874). Shishkin and Vasiliev’s partnership was successful at first: they worked together on the island of Valaam from July to November 1867, and Shishkin introduced Vasiliev to other masters of Russian realist art, Ivan Kramskoi (1837-1887) and Ilya Repin (1844-1930), and the highly influential art collector Pavel Tretyakov (1832-1898). However, Vasiliev's talent eventually led to a rivalry between the two artists and Shishkin was often accused of scheming and using his influence over judges to ensure that he won in art competitions. In 1870 Vasiliev was made a member of the Itinerants, and his painting Thaw (1871) brought him immediate fame: a copy was commissioned by the Tsar’s family and he was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. A posthumous exhibition was held in St Petersburg a few months after his death and was immensely successful with all works selling prior to the exhibition's opening. Gulf of Finland was among the works exhibited there, and is characteristic of Vasiliev's interest in 'frontier' spaces, which in this case is the frontier between land and sea. The composition emphasises the desolateness of the landscape, and his palette of brown and grey imbues the canvas with a sense of melancholy and gloom.