Born into a poor merchant’s family in Yelabuga, Shishkin entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He then continued his education at the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, in the studio of Sokrat Vorobyov, a famous portrait painter. During that period of his life, Shishkin often went out of town to paint en plein air. He painted numerous studies trying to capture ever-changing landscape. Back in the workshop, he combined them into large painting.

Although Deep Forest is a study, art historians regard it as a finished work. The artist depicts the edge of a forest covered in young green grass and wildflowers, a deep forest in the background. The cropped treetops create a feeling of extremely tall trees, which would not even fit the canvas.

The painter uses numerous hues of green. He applies the tonal painting technique, which is based on light and dark variations of a single colour.