Information about Arkhip Kuindzhi’s childhood is very fragmentary and incomplete. Even the date of his birth is not known reliably. A few documents have survived, on the basis of which researchers of Kuindzhi’s biography call his birthday January 15, 1841. This event took place in a suburb of Mariupol called Karasu.
Talent and Poverty (1841-1854)
It is believed that the artist’s ancestors were Greeks who lived in Crimea in close proximity to the Tatars. There was a gradual interpenetration of cultures, the language barrier was erased, and mixed marriages arose. Therefore, it is quite possible that there is Tatar blood in Kuindzhi’s family, although the artist himself always said that he considered himself Russian.
The surname “Kuindzhi” (in the original transcription Kuyumdzhi) in the Tatar language means the name of the craft: “goldsmith”. It is known that the artist’s grandfather was indeed a jeweler. Arkhip’s brother translated his surname into Russian and became Zolotarev.
The birth of a talented child in poor family does not promise him any privileges. Kuindzhi's father, Ivan Khristoforovich, was a shoemaker and could not provide his children with prosperity. When Arkhip was three years old, his father suddenly died. The mother lived very short after this. The little orphans were left in the care of Father Kuindzhi’s brother and sister, who took turns taking care of them as best they could.
Thanks to the support of his relatives, the boy learned to read and write, studying with a familiar Greek teacher, and later briefly attended the local city school. He did not like studying there and found it very difficult. It was during this period that his drawing abilities first clearly manifested themselves. Getting carried away, the kid drew not only on random scraps of paper, but also on furniture or a fence. This activity brought him genuine joy.
Poverty forced him to work as a shepherd, as an assistant to a grain merchant, or as a brick counter during the construction of a church. But drawing was still his main passion. This continued until 1855, when one of the adults, noticing the boy’s talent, advised him to go and study drawing with Aivazovsky, in Feodosia. Arkhip Kuindzhi made this long journey on foot, since he had nothing to pay for the journey.
New turn (1855-1859)
Crimean landscapes captured the imagination of an impressionable teenager. Aivazovsky was absent at that time, so his copyist, Adolf Fessler, out of the kindness of his heart, took part in the fate of young Arkhip. He taught him his first real drawing lessons. For poor and shy Arkhip, this meant that he had hope of becoming an artist.
He stayed in Feodosia for several months. Aivazovsky’s daughter in her memoirs described him as a short, very curly-haired boy in a straw hat, very quiet and shy.
Aivazovsky himself, upon returning to Feodosia, failed to recognize Kuindzhi’s talent and did not begin to study with him. True, he entrusted him with mixing paints and painting his fence. Disappointed and depressed by this turn of events, the young man returns home.
Luck on the third try (1860-1868)
IN hometown Kuindzhi works for several months as a retoucher for a photographer, and later goes in search of work, first to Odessa, and from there to Taganrog. This city greeted him more welcomingly. Arkhip is hired into the photo studio of S.S. Isakovich, again as a retoucher. And he continues to draw.
Having finally realized that he would not be able to realize his dream in such conditions, Kuindzhi gave up everything and moved to St. Petersburg, where he tried to enter the Academy of Arts. However, fate gave him a new grimace - failure in the exams. The second attempt was also unsuccessful.
But talent and love for painting required an outlet and pushed me to overcome obstacles. Kuindzhi persistently painted and in 1868 exhibited his first painting entitled “Tatar hut in the Crimea.” This work gives him access to the Academy of Arts, where he is enrolled as a volunteer student.
During this fertile period, Kuindzhi created incredibly poignant paintings “Autumn thaw”, “Forgotten village” and “Chumatsky tract in Mariupol”.
They are painted in an innovative manner. Carefully selected shades very accurately convey the gloom and dullness of the bleak landscapes. The unusual colors and special play of shadows greatly impressed the audience, but they received mixed assessment among artists.
"Northern" period (1869-1873)
Kuindzhi was very attracted to working on landscapes. He developed his own special technique for applying paints, which made it possible to create such unusual visual illusions that his friends called him a hoaxer behind his back.
Inspired by the views of northern nature, the artist short period created such masterpieces as “Lake Ladoga”, “Snow”, “On the Island of Valaam”, “St. Isaac’s Cathedral by Moonlight”.
Again a turn and a meteoric rise (1874-1881)
In 1874, the life of Arkhip Kuindzhi received new content: the artist married Vera Leontyevna Ketcherdzhi. He was in love with her since teenage years. Previously, this marriage was impossible due to Kuindzhi’s extreme poverty and the rich origin of the bride.
Now the sale of paintings has made the artist a wealthy person. He was able to visit England, France, Austria, Switzerland and other countries to get acquainted with various schools of painting.
A new, more joyful period of life has arrived. And the artist’s paintings acquired a different tone. Written at that time " Birch Grove", "Dnieper in the morning", " Moonlight night on the Dnieper”, “Ukrainian Night” made an incredible impression on the audience.
The bright, almost decorative play of colors made the paintings simply glow. Some even tried to look behind the canvas to make sure there was no artificial moonlight. Kuindzhi's contemporary, poet Ya. Polonsky, looking at the paintings, wondered in bewilderment: is this a painting or a window frame, behind which a landscape of incomprehensible beauty opens?
Silence of a Genius (1882-1910)
After such a resounding success, Kuindzhi’s friends reasonably expected new paintings and subjects. But the artist has his own logic - he stopped exhibitions for 20 years. At this time, he continued to write, study literature, tutor students, and build a dacha in Crimea.
Despite his active and touchy character, Arkhip Kuindzhi was reputed to be very kind person. He constantly and free of charge supported his students with money and established prizes for the best young artists. His kindness also extended to animals and birds.
From the written memoirs of the artist’s contemporaries it is known that every day around noon he went out into the yard to feed the birds. Already accustomed to such a ritual, sparrows, crows, doves and other winged brethren flocked to him. The birds were not afraid of him at all, they sat on his hands, which only made the owner happy.
In 1901, Kuindzhi broke his “silence” by presenting new masterpieces to the discerning public: “Evening in Ukraine”, the theological plot “Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane” and new option"Birch Grove" They still excite and fascinate the viewer, captivating the eye for a long time.
He did not exhibit again and many of his paintings became known only after his death. Died genius artist July 11, 1910. The cause of death was a diseased heart.
1. Kuindzhi worked on the painting “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” for about six months. A few months before the completion of the work, rumors spread throughout St. Petersburg about incredible beauty this work. Long lines lined up outside the windows of his workshop. Everyone wanted to at least get a glimpse of this work of art. Kuindzhi went to meet the people of St. Petersburg and lifted the veil of secrecy. Every Sunday the artist opened the doors of his studio to everyone for exactly 2 hours.
2. During this time, many great people of that time became guests of his workshop - I.S. Turgenev, D.I. Mendeleev, Ya.P. Polonsky, I.N. Kramskoy, P.P. Chistyakov. One Sunday, a modest naval officer came to the artist and inquired about the cost of the painting. Arkhip Ivanovich named an incredible amount for those times - 5 thousand rubles. He didn't expect him to agree at all. But the officer replied: “Okay. I’ll leave it behind.” It turned out that it was Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov, who purchased the painting for his collection.
3. “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” was exhibited on Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St. Petersburg, in the hall of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. It is important that this was the first exhibition of one painting in Russia. And people stood in line for hours to see the work of the “artist of light.” This is exactly what fans of his work began to call Kuindzhi.
4. Arkhip Kuindzhi approached the exhibition of his painting responsibly. The idea came to him in a dream: in order to achieve a greater effect, the artist asked to curtain all the windows in the hall and illuminate the picture with a beam focused on it. When visitors entered the dimly lit hall, they could not believe their eyes - the sparkling silvery-greenish disk of the moon flooded the entire room with its deep, bewitching light. Many of them looked behind the painting in the hope of finding a lamp there in order to convict the author of charlatanism. But she was not there.
5. In this picture, Kuindzhi managed to show all the beauty of nature, calm and serene Ukrainian night– the majestic Dnieper, dilapidated mud huts and the cold glow of moonlight. I.E. Repin recalled how dozens of people stood in front of the canvas “in prayerful silence” with tears in their eyes: “This is how the artist’s poetic charms acted on selected believers, and they lived in such moments with the best feelings of the soul and enjoyed the heavenly bliss of the art of painting.”
6. There were rumors that Kuindzhi paints with “magic lunar” paints from Japan. Envious people argued with contempt that drawing with them did not require great intelligence. The superstitious accused the master of being in cahoots with evil spirits.
7. The secret of the “artist of light” was the artist’s fantastic ability to play with contrasts and long experiments on color rendering. In the process of creating a painting, he mixed not only paints, but also added chemical elements. Kuindzhi helped him with this close friend– D.I.Mendeleev.
8. The new owner, Grand Duke Constantine, liked the painting so much that he decided not to part with it even when traveling. He placed the canvas on his yacht and went sailing. I.S. Turgenev was horrified by this. He wrote to D.V. Gigorovich: “There is no doubt that the picture... will return completely destroyed.” I even personally persuaded the prince to leave the painting, but he was adamant. Of course, dampness, wind and air saturated with salt had a negative impact on the condition of the canvas. The paint is cracked and faded. But despite this, the picture still fascinates the viewer.
9. The picture was extremely popular. This prompted Kuindzhi to create two more original copies of Moonlit Night on the Dnieper. They were written 2 years later - in 1882. The first is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the other in the Livadia Palace in Yalta.
10. The fame that befell Kuindzhi after “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” almost “crushed” the artist. At the peak of your creative powers great creator took an unexpected step. He closed the doors of his workshop and stopped exhibition activities. He explained his action this way: “...an artist needs to perform at exhibitions while he, like a singer, has a voice. And as soon as the voice subsides, you have to leave, not show yourself, so as not to be ridiculed.” For 30 years of “silence” there was not a day when the artist did not pick up a brush or pencil. Even before his death, he remained faithful to his life's work. Not having the strength to get out of bed, he lay down and drew pencil sketches.
11. The museum-apartment of the talented master is located in the famous “house of the artist” on Birzhevoy Lane. The initiative to create a museum-apartment was made by Kuindzhi’s student, Nicholas Roerich. Unfortunately, it was possible to open the exhibition only in 1991 - on the 150th anniversary of the artist.
HELP KP
Arkhip Ivanovich KUINDZHI born on January 27, 1842 in the family of a poor shoemaker. The surname Kuindzhi was given to him by his grandfather’s nickname, which in Tatar means “goldsmith.” In the 60s, the aspiring artist “failed” the exam twice and entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts only on the third try. There he became friends with V.M. Vasnetsov and I.E. Repin, met I.N. Kramskoy, the ideologist of advanced Russian artists. Early works The artist's works were written under the influence of Aivazovsky's manner. Over time, he begins to think about themes and writing style, independently studying paints, colors, lighting effects, and by the age of forty he becomes famous. In the early 90s, Kuindzhi began a period of “silence” and for almost 30 years he painted “on the table”. In the period 1894-1897, Kuindzhi led the highest art school at the Academy of Arts. His students were A. Rylov, N. Roerich, K. Bogaevsky. In 1909, Kuindzhi organized the Society of Artists. He donated his money, lands and paintings to this organization. The “Artist of Light” died in St. Petersburg on July 11, 1910.
"Moonlit Night on the Dnieper"(1880) – one of the most famous paintings Arkhip Kuindzhi. This work created a real sensation and acquired mystical fame. Many did not believe that the light of the moon could be conveyed in this way only artistic means, and looked behind the canvas, looking for a lamp there. Many stood silently for hours in front of the painting, and then left in tears. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich bought “Moonlit Night” for his personal collection and took it with him everywhere, which had tragic consequences.
The artist worked on this painting in the summer and autumn of 1880. Even before the exhibition began, rumors spread that Kuindzhi was preparing something completely incredible. There were so many curious people that on Sundays the painter opened the doors of his studio and let everyone in. Even before the exhibition began, the painting was bought by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich.
Kuindzhi was always very zealous about exhibiting his paintings, but this time he outdid himself. It was personal exhibition, and only one work was shown on it - “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper”. The artist ordered to drape all the windows and illuminate the canvas with a beam of electric light directed at it - in daylight Moonlight it didn't look so impressive. Visitors entered the dark hall and, as if under hypnosis, froze in front of this magical picture.
There was a queue for days in front of the hall of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists in St. Petersburg, where the exhibition took place. The public had to be allowed into the room in groups to avoid crowding. ABOUT incredible effect the paintings were legendary. The shine of the moonlight was so fantastic that the artist was suspected of using some unusual mother-of-pearl paints brought from Japan or China, and was even accused of having connections with evil spirits. And skeptical viewers tried to find reverse side canvas hidden lamps.
Of course, the whole secret was in the extraordinary artistic skill Kuindzhi, in the skillful construction of the composition and such a combination of colors that created the effect of radiance and caused the illusion of flickering light. The warm reddish earth tone contrasted with the cool silver tones, thereby deepening the space. However, even the professionals could not explain the magical impression that the painting made on the audience with skill alone - many left the exhibition in tears.
I. Repin said that the audience froze in front of the painting “in prayerful silence”: “This is how the artist’s poetic charms acted on selected believers, and they lived in such moments with the best feelings of the soul and enjoyed the heavenly bliss of the art of painting.” The poet Ya. Polonsky was surprised: “I honestly don’t remember standing in front of any painting for so long... What is this? Picture or reality? And the poet K. Fofanov, impressed by this painting, wrote the poem “Night on the Dnieper,” which was later set to music.
I. Kramskoy foresaw the fate of the canvas: “Perhaps Kuindzhi combined together such colors that are in natural antagonism with each other and after a certain time will either go out, or change and decompose to the point that descendants will shrug their shoulders in bewilderment: why did they come to the delight of the good-natured spectators? To avoid this unfair treatment in the future, I would not mind drawing up, so to speak, a protocol that his “Night on the Dnieper” is all filled with real light and air, and the sky is real, bottomless, deep.”
Unfortunately, our contemporaries cannot fully appreciate the original effect of the painting, since it has survived to our times in a distorted form. And it's all to blame - special treatment to the canvas of its owner, Grand Duke Constantine. He was so attached to this painting that he took it with him to trip around the world. Having learned about this, I. Turgenev was horrified: “There is no doubt that the painting will return completely ruined, thanks to the salty fumes of the air.” He even tried to persuade the prince to leave the painting in Paris for a while, but he was adamant.
Unfortunately, the writer turned out to be right: the salt-saturated sea air and high humidity had a detrimental effect on the composition of the paints, and they began to darken. Therefore, now “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” looks completely different. Although the moonlight still has a magical effect on viewers today, it still arouses constant interest.
In 1880, one opened in St. Petersburg extraordinary exhibition. There was a huge line of people waiting to get into the exhibition hall outside the building on Bolshaya Morskaya Street. After waiting outside for several hours, visitors went inside to look at one single picture.
It was a landscape of the Russian artist-Itinerant. Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi entitled "". The canvas is quite small in size, and the sky, moon and river are painted on it. It would seem nothing special... However, the audience was amazed. In the dimly lit hall, it seemed to them that they had somehow magically been transported from the gray St. Petersburg morning into the moonlit Ukrainian night.
They saw a wide plain along which the Dnieper slowly carries its waters, and in the heights of the cloud-covered sky, through a small hole the moon shines, illuminating the river and its bank with a mysterious silvery light. Admiring this beautiful landscape, visitors to the exhibition recalled the words of the great N.V. Gogol, who sang the beauty of the Ukrainian night.
Singer of Light
In his own way he sang the poetry of this night and Kuindzhi, after all, it was not for nothing that he was called “the singer of open spaces and light.” He, like no one else, knew how to create amazing illusion Sveta.
This silvery-green light in the painting was so bright and visible that many viewers tried to find some kind of catch, trying to understand how the artist managed to achieve such an effect. 
It was rumored that the picture was painted not with strokes of oil on canvas, but with some mysterious lunar paints on glass and illuminated by a lamp from the reverse side.
Curious people looked behind the picture and did not find any lamp, and the moon continued to shine with a mysterious witch's light. Kuindzhi, indeed, were not quite ordinary and typical. The artist devoted a lot of time to serious study of the properties of paints, spending many hours in the university laboratory, even using special instruments to achieve the shades and effects he needed.
The process of creating a picture was long for him - Kuindzhi I spent a long time selecting paints, thought about each brush stroke for a long time, peering intently at the work being created.
Colors or feelings?
But still, the main thing in his canvas is not special colors, but the ability to convey with their help all the splendor of nature, its mood. He was able to convey the space, silence and poetry of a warm Ukrainian night. And that is why people stood at the painting for a long time, unable to take their eyes off it. Many even left the hall with tears in their eyes, such strong impression the effect this work had on them Kuindzhi.
The audience was delighted. The entire press wrote about this exhibition at the time; reproductions of the painting were sold in huge quantities throughout the country. Poet inspired by this work K. Fofanov created the poem “Night on the Dnieper,” which was later set to music.
The painting itself was bought for enormous money by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, who valued it so much that he did not want to part with the masterpiece, even going to cruise. Unfortunately, the sea air had a detrimental effect on the canvas, and the colors darkened somewhat, but did not fade Moonlight, that’s why even now people never tire of admiring it outstanding work art.
Give me the beauty of this world...
Kuindzhi developed and masterfully applied his own hitherto unprecedented system of decorative plastics, came up with unusual visual techniques with lighting effects, intense tones and sharp compositional angles. 
But main secret paintings by Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi in that he knew how to convey and convey to the audience in his works feelings. And if in another it famous landscape (« Birch Grove") the main thing is the joy that is literally spilled in the air, here it is peace, harmony, and admiration for the extraordinary beauty of nature.
In his paintings, the painter created his ideal world, where life and the space around us is perceived as good, bringing people goodness, beauty and joy of impressions.
I.E. Repin wrote that A. Kuindzhi“brought back rapture to the landscape sense of beauty and the extraordinary things of the world."
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Plot
Before us is a landscape. The artist chose a point of view from afar and from above, leaving most canvas for the sky. The shining moon colors the contours of the clouds in cold tones. The light fluctuates dark waters a river which, as Kramskoy notes, “flows majestically.”
"Moonlit night on the Dnieper." (wikipedia.org)
As in most of his other works, Kuindzhi wanted to convey natural phenomena that were not amenable to lengthy painting from life. The artist had a unique vision - he remembered tones, due to which he captured for centuries those moments that in nature last minutes.
"After the Rain", 1879. (wikipedia.org)
“The illusion of light was his god, and there was no artist equal to him in achieving this miracle of painting,” his friend and mentor Ilya Repin wrote about Kuindzhi.
Context
Especially for Moonlit Night on the Dnieper, Kuindzhi organized an exhibition of one painting - the first of its kind in Russia. Even before her, rumors circulated around St. Petersburg about the unprecedented beauty of the painting that Kuindzhi was painting. Those wishing to see the canvas gathered under the artist’s windows. Every Sunday he allowed all curious people into the workshop for two hours.
For greater effect, the windows in the hall were curtained, a ray of light fell only on the canvas. When visitors entered the dimly lit hall, they could not believe their eyes - greenish moonlight flooded the entire room.
"Sea. Crimea", 1890s. (wikipedia.org)
People did not understand why such an unusual light emanated from the painting. It seemed that such an effect could not be created only with the help of oil. Some even tried to look behind the picture to see if there was a lamp there. What kind of rumors were circulating around St. Petersburg! That Kuindzhi paints with “magic lunar” colors from Japan. Someone even remembered the unclean one. There was such a fuss that the artist decided to go into seclusion for 20 years.
In fact, the secret was simple - long years work. Kuindzhi was a passionate experimenter. He mixed not only paints, but also added chemical elements to them. This could not have happened without the hand of the chemist of all Rus', Dmitry Mendeleev.
The painting was bought by Grand Duke Constantine. He was so fascinated by the painting that he even took it with him on a trip around the world.
The fate of the artist
Kuindzhi was born into the family of a poor shoemaker. Little Arkhip, who lost his parents early, studied very poorly. He liked drawing more, so everything that seemed suitable for this was covered with drawings.
The boy lived in great poverty, so early childhood He got a job - herding geese, keeping records of bricks at a construction site, helping in a bakery. One day he was advised to go to Crimea to see Ivan Aivazovsky and learn to draw. Imagine his disappointment when Aivazovsky allowed him only to grind paints and paint the fence.
Arkhip Kuindzhi. Portrait by V. M. Vasnetsov, 1869. (wikipedia.org)
For the next almost 10 years, Kuindzhi retouched photographs, until one day he decided to take the exam for the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. It only worked the third time. At the academy, Arkhip met the Itinerants, under whose influence he wrote his first successful, in the opinion of academicians, canvases.
Fame came to him with " Moonlit night on the Dnieper." After exhibiting several more paintings after it, Kuindzhi unexpectedly went into seclusion. “...An artist needs to perform at exhibitions while he, like a singer, has a voice. And as soon as the voice subsides, you have to leave, not show yourself, so as not to be ridiculed,” said Kuindzhi.
For the next 20 years he wrote, but did not show his work to anyone. Kuindzhi emerged from seclusion in 1901. In November of the same year, the last public exhibition of the painter’s works was organized, after which no one saw new paintings until his death in 1910. Kuindzhi donated everything he had to the Society of Artists, which he organized shortly before his death.
