Artist Arkhip Kuindzhi is a world-famous master of landscape painting, author amazing pictures With amazing fate. However, his fate is very similar to the fate of most Russian artists of the nineteenth century.
Biography of the artist Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi
Arkhip Kuindzhi
There is no reliable information about the date and place of birth of Arkhip Ivanovich. Someone claims that the future artist was born in January 1841, according to other sources, this event took place in 1842.
Approximately the same "reliable" information is available about the name of the painter. In the metric about the birth of a child, the surname Yemendzhi is listed (in translation " labor man”), and later Emendzhi turned into Kuindzhi (translated from Urum - goldsmith).
This is the same version about the Greek roots of the artist. Rather, it is possible, with a high degree of certainty, to talk about Tatar roots.
The artist's brother took the name Zolotarev.
However, Arkhip Ivanovich himself always called himself Russian.
Now back to the childhood of the artist.
The artist Arkhip Kuindzhi was born into the family of a poor shoemaker. In early childhood, Arkhip Ivanovich became an orphan and lived in the family of his uncle. The family was very poor and the boy from the very early childhood worked - grazing geese, worked in construction, served in a bakery.
He studied privately with a Greek teacher, and for some time attended classes at a real school. Subsequently, Arkhip's comrades recalled that he did poorly and the only subject that fascinated the boy was drawing. Kuindzhi drew not only on paper, but also on the walls of buildings, on the school fence, etc.
The baker Amoretti, for whom Kuindzhi worked, saw Arkhip's drawings and advised Kuindzhi to go to Ivan Aivazovsky in the Crimea and become a student of the famous artist.
In the summer of 1855, the future artist reached Feodosia on foot. Not close at all. Crimean landscapes simply fascinated Arkhip. But, Aivazovsky was not in the Crimea at that time, and Kuindzhi turned for help to Adof Fessler, who worked for Aivazovsky as a copyist. Fessler was sympathetic to Arkhip's desire to study and became the first real teacher of painting in the boy's life.
Kuindzhi stayed at Aivazovsky's house for several months: he studied and waited for the return of the famous artist. However, Aivazovsky did not see talent in a modest, shy boy and refused to take classes with Kuindzhi. Aivazovsky instructed Arkhip to mix paints and ordered ... to paint the fence around his house.
Disappointed and simply destroyed by such a cold reception, Kuindzhi set off on his way back to a bakery in Mariupol.
However, in Mariupol, Arkhip found a job as a retoucher with a local photographer. Arkhip worked in a photo studio for several months, saved up some money and moved to Odessa, where he again got a job as a retoucher, but already with an Odessa photographer. Then there was Taganrog and again the work of a retoucher. Arkhip even tried to open his own photography studio, but to no avail.
It took 10 years to retouch other people's photos, to experience the failure that befell him with Aivazovsky. And finally, in 1865, Kuindzhi decided to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts.
Petersburg met the future artist very coolly - two attempts to enter the academy ended sadly. It seemed that the failures would break Arkhip, but he did not leave painting and in 1868 offered his painting “Tatar saklya in the Crimea” for an academic exhibition.
On September 15, 1868, the Council of the Academy of Arts awarded Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi the title of a free artist.
However, the artist had to apply to the same Council for permission to take examinations for a diploma.
Two years later, in 1870, Kuindzhi received the title of non-class artist.
Three times the artist passed exams for the right to become a volunteer of the academy and, in the end, he achieved this right.
During this period, Arkhip Ivanovich became friends with I.E. Repin and I.N. Kramskoy. This meeting played a big role in the creative destiny of the artist - he was carried away by the ideas of wandering. And the result of this passion was the painting "Autumn thaw", "Forgotten village" and "Chumatsky tract in Mariupol". The last two paintings very quickly ended up in the Tretyakov Gallery, and for the "Autumn thaw" Arkhip Kuindzhi was awarded the title of class artist.
forgotten village
Chumatsky tract in Mariupol
autumn thaw
All three works were exhibited at the exhibition of the Association of the Wanderers and made a splash - they started talking about Kuindzhi and his works.
The artist, finally, believed in his talent, in his strength. And he stopped attending classes at the Academy.
However, Kuindzhi was not so carried away by the ideas of wandering to completely abandon the vision of his path in painting.
In the early seventies, the artist often visits the island of Valaam (it was favorite place Petersburg landscape painters) and paints two very interesting landscapes: "On the Island of Valaam" and "Lake Ladoga".
On the island of Valaam
Ladoga lake
You do not think that in a few years of creativity, only two landscapes were painted. "On the Island of Valaam" and "Lake Ladoga" became another stage in the artist's work - it was a breakthrough in the itinerant landscape, or rather a departure from the itinerant movement. Realistic nature with romantic elements. And wandering does not imply romanticism.
1873 was a very successful year for the artist. This is the success of the Valaam landscapes, and the exhibiting of the painting "Snow" at the exhibition of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. And again a huge success. In 1874, the painting "Snow" received a bronze medal at an international exhibition in London.
In 1875, the artist leaves for France, but is engaged, to a greater extent, not in painting, but in ordering a wedding tailcoat. From childhood, poor years, Arkhip was in love with the daughter of a wealthy Mariupol merchant, Vera Ketcherdzhi-Shapovalova. And then a miracle happened - the beauty (and her parents) agreed to this marriage.
After the wedding, the young people leave for Valaam. In that happy year the artist painted "Steppe" and his famous "Ukrainian Night". Art historians say that the romantic period in the artist's work began with the "Ukrainian Night". And I think that the romantic period began with the wedding and the appearance in the life of the artist of his Faith.
Ukrainian night
Steppe. Niva
In 1875, Kuindzhi was accepted into the Association of the Wanderers, but he was already far from the ideas of the Wanderers. He does not want to open the ulcers and interpret life. Kuindzhi has a different view of painting and its place - to show beauty and enjoy beauty.
In 1878, the young couple went to Paris for the World Exhibition. Kuindzhi's works delight Parisians and guests of the exhibition. Critics all over the world speak and write about the talented Russian artist.
Returning from the exhibition, Arkhip Ivanovich begins to write "Evening in Ukraine". He will paint this picture for 23 years.
Evening in Ukraine
In March 1879 A.I. Kuindzhi finally breaks off his relationship with the Association of the Wanderers. The reason for the break was an article by an unknown author in one of the newspapers. The author was very critical of the work of the Wanderers, but Kuindzhi was subjected to special derogatory criticism. It soon became clear that the author of the article was M.K. Klodt.
At the meeting, Kuindzhi demanded that Klodt be expelled from the ranks of the Wanderers, but the meeting refused to satisfy this demand. And then he left the Association. A.I. Kuindzhi.
And soon Kuindzhi arranged, in the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, an exhibition of just one painting. The painter thought out this unusual exhibition to the smallest detail: the windows in the hall were draped, and the picture (it was “ Moonlight night on the Dnieper") was illuminated with a beam of electric light.
Moonlit night on the Dnieper
The exhibition was an unprecedented success and caused the most real hype in the light.
Alas, the picture was painted with paints based on bitumen. Subsequently, it turned out that asphalt paints decompose and darken under the intense influence of light and air.
The painting was purchased by Grand Duke Konstantin, who simply fell in love with this landscape, and decided to take it with him to trip around the world. Under the influence of sea air and light, the composition of paints has changed ... And today we have the opportunity to admire not the pristine beauty that so impressed the audience 150 years ago, but only the echoes of beauty. However, art historians say that even today the picture is striking in its depth, power and beauty.
Inspired by the success of Kuindzhi in 1881, he arranges an exhibition of one painting for the Birch Grove. And again success.
Birch Grove
In 1882, the exhibition of the painting "Dnepr in the Morning" ended in failure. Public skepticism, cool reviews of art historians and critics.
Dnieper in the morning
In the same year, the artist arranges an exhibition of two paintings: "Birch Grove" and "Moonlight Night on the Dnieper". And for many years he retires in his workshop.
What happened and why did the artist choose voluntary seclusion at the height of his fame? There is no answer to this question.
In 1886, near the village of Kikeneiz (in the Crimea) family couple Kuindzhi acquires 245 acres of land, builds a hut on this plot and enjoys serene happiness. Some time later, a small family estate, Sara Kikeneis, appears in this place.
Many years later, the artist will bring his students to the estate in the open air.
In 1901, Kuindzhi renounced voluntary seclusion and showed, at first only to students and friends, and then to the public, four of his paintings: the completed "Evening in Ukraine", the new "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane", the third version of "Birch Grove" and already once unsuccessfully shown "Dnepr in the morning".
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
The audience was absolutely delighted!
In November 1901, the artist arranges a large public exhibition of works. This was the last exhibition. More A.I. Kuindzhi did not show his works to the public.
After the November exhibition, "Rainbow", "Red Sunset", "Night" and other works of the artist were painted. But the public saw these paintings after the death of the painter.
If the artist did not exhibit his work, then what income did he live on?
At the very peak of his fame and financial well-being, Kuindzhi bought a large house in St. Petersburg (on Vasilyevsky Island), renovated it and turned the house into a profitable one, i.e. intended for renting apartments, as they would say now. This house gave the artist a very decent income. In 1904, Kuindzhi donated 100,000 rubles to the Academy for the issuance of 24 annual awards. There were other significant donations as well.
And the Kuindzhi family lived quite modestly.
In the summer of 1910, in the Crimea, the artist fell ill with pneumonia. At the insistence of the doctors, the wife transported her sick husband to St. Petersburg, but the doctors were powerless. In July 1910, the artist died. He was buried at the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg.
And Vera Leontievna Kuindzhi outlived her husband by 10 years. She died in 1920 from starvation.
I have collected a small gallery of the artist's work. I hope that you will enjoy the work of the great Russian landscape painter.
Paintings by Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi
After the rain
Darial Gorge. Moonlight night
sunset effect
Sea. Crimea
Fishing in the Black Sea
Cypress trees on the seashore. Crimea
Elbrus in the evening
Elbrus. Moonlight night
Forest Lake. Cloud
View of St. Isaac's Cathedral by moonlight
Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi (at the birth of Kuyumdzhi; (January 15 (27), 1841, according to another version 1842, the town of Karasu (Karasevka), Mariupol district, Yekaterinoslav province, Russian empire- July 11 (24), 1910, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire) - Russian artist of Urum origin, master of landscape painting.
Arkhip Kuindzhi (translated from the Turkic Urum surname Kuyumdzhi means "goldsmith") was born in Mariupol (modern Donetsk region of Ukraine) in the Karasu quarter, in the family of a poor shoemaker. In the metric, he was listed under the name Yemendzhi - "working man." The boy lost his parents early and was brought up by his aunt and paternal uncle. With the help of relatives, Arkhip learned Greek grammar from a Greek teacher, then, after homework, he attended the city school for some time. According to the recollections of his comrades, he studied poorly, but even then he was fond of painting and drew on any suitable material- on walls, fences and scraps of paper.
The boy lived in great poverty, so from early childhood he was employed - grazing geese, served with the contractor Chabanenko on the construction of the church, where he was instructed to keep records of bricks, then served with the grain merchant Amoretti. It was the latter (according to another version, it was his acquaintance, the grain merchant Durante) who once noticed Arkhip's drawings and advised him to go to the Crimea to the famous painter Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky. In the summer of 1855, Kuindzhi arrived in Feodosia and tried to become an apprentice to the artist, but he was only instructed to grind paint and paint the fence. A little help in painting was provided to Arkhip Ivanovich only by a young relative of Aivazovsky, who copied the paintings of the master and then visited him. After two months of living in Feodosia, Arkhip returned to Mariupol, where he began working as a retoucher for a local photographer, but a few months later he left for Odessa, where he again took up retouching. Three years later, in 1860, the young man left for Taganrog, where until 1865 he worked as a retoucher in the photographic studio of S. S. Isakovich (Petrovskaya street, 82). At the same time, he tried to open his own photography studio, but to no avail.
In 1865, Kuindzhi decided to enter the Academy of Arts and left for St. Petersburg, however, the first two attempts were unsuccessful. Finally, he created the painting "Tatar saklya in the Crimea", written under the obvious influence of Aivazovsky, which has not survived to this day, which he exhibited at an academic exhibition in 1868. As a result, on September 15, the Council of the Academy of Arts awarded Kuindzhi the title of a free artist. However, only after applying to the Academic Council was he allowed to take examinations in major and special subjects to obtain a diploma. In 1870, Kuindzhi received the title of non-class artist and on the third attempt became a volunteer at the Imperial Academy of Arts. At this time, he met the Wanderers, among whom were I. N. Kramskoy and I. E. Repin. This acquaintance had a great influence on Kuindzhi's work, marking the beginning of his realistic perception of reality.
Passion for the ideas of the Wanderers led Kuindzhi to create such works as "Autumn thaw" (1872, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), for which he received the title of class artist, "The Forgotten Village" (1874, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow), "Chumatsky tract in Mariupol" (1875, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). These paintings were dominated by the social idea, the desire to express their civic feelings, so they were painted in dark gloomy colors. True, the last picture stood out among them and other Wandering landscapes with a more diverse range of colors and complicated color solutions, which somewhat relieved the feeling of heaviness and dullness and brought into the work a touch of sympathy for the depicted heroes. All these works were exhibited as part of the exhibitions of the Association of the Wanderers and were a great success. They started talking about Kuindzhi and his work, and, believing in his own strength, he stopped attending classes at the Academy.
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Arkhip Kuindzhi did not leave behind any diaries, memoirs or letters. The estimated date of his birth is January 27, 1841. He was born in Mariupol, but according to some versions, he could also be born in 1840, or maybe in 1842. Not everything is unambiguous with the name of the artist. It was recorded in the metric that he was the son of Ivan Khristoforovich Yemendzhi. But the boy, presumably, got the name of his grandfather, the jeweler Kuyumdzhi, later entered in the wrong transcription.
Kuindzhi's father was a shoemaker. In 1845 he died. Soon Arkhip's mother also passed away. Orphaned at an early age, the boy could not get an education. Presumably, until the age of ten, he attended an elementary Greek school, and a year later he entered the contractor for the construction of the church, then served as a rich grain merchant. It was at this age that he developed a passion for drawing. There was a turn in Kuindzhi's fate when the Feodosia grain merchant Durante (according to another version - Amoretti) advised him to go to study in Feodosia to famous marine painter Ivan Aivazovsky. Kuindzhi went to Feodosia on foot, stayed there almost all summer, but the great master did not appreciate the talent of the teenager. Therefore, Kuindzhi received his first painting lessons from Aivazovsky's relative, Adolf Fessler. Returning to Mariupol, Kuindzhi began working as a retoucher for a local photographer, and then went to Odessa. Kuindzhi and his brothers even wanted to open own studio, but was unable to raise the necessary funds for this. When he realized that there was nothing to lose, and time was not working for him, he decided to move to the capital - St. Petersburg.
The move took place either in 1860 or in 1861. Kuindzhi entered the Academy of Arts twice and failed twice. According to one version, thanks to perseverance, he nevertheless became a free listener and was able to attend some classes, where he met Ilya Repin and Viktor Vasnetsov. Kuindzhi was not embarrassed by either meager food or modest clothing. He made new friends and a favorite thing to do. Eternal debts and lack of money did not bother the young artist. “If an artistic talent is so weak that it must be put under a glass jar, otherwise it will perish, then that’s where it belongs!” he said later.
In 1868, Kuindzhi first made himself known at an academic exhibition with the painting "Tatar village in moonlight on the southern coast of Crimea." As a result, the academicians recognized the newcomer as worthy of the title of free artist. He was admitted to the examinations, and he was allowed to pass them with a delay and incomplete. Kuindzhi, having only an incomplete primary education, was not strong in exact sciences. But that was also a victory. Although later absence classical education the painter was often blamed, and some critics reproached him for the weakness of the drawing, for the naivete of the composition, for the variegation of color. But perhaps it was precisely this circumstance that allowed Kuindzhi to preserve his originality and originality, the immediacy of a sense of the beauty of nature until the end of his days.
At the next exhibition in 1869, Kuindzhi presented three landscapes: "A fisherman's hut on the shore Sea of Azov"," Storm on the Black Sea "and" View of St. Isaac's Cathedral in the moonlight. They clearly felt the young artist's passion for the style and painting style of Aivazovsky and his desire to master the basics academic school. Kuindzhi also met Vasily Polenov and Mark Antokolsky.
View of St. Isaac's Cathedral by moonlight
Trying to earn money, Kuindzhi remembered his former profession as a retoucher. Work occupied all days, for classes and meetings with like-minded friends, he had only evening hours.
In 1970, Kuindzhi passed four major final exams at the Academy of Arts. Even then, Kuindzhi attracted the attention of his comrades with his eccentricity of thinking and the depth of his statements about art, about social problems, but he did not manage to avoid the influence of ideas that were relevant among his artist friends. This was confirmed by the creation in 1870 of the landscape "Autumn Thaw". The painting was exhibited at the first exhibition of the Association of Wanderers and immediately attracted attention. This work, which seemed to be sustained in the laws of the landscape genre, tells about the dull life of the Russian village, was filled with the same pain that permeated the best works Wanderers dedicated to the peasant theme. A cart moved slowly along the road, muddy in the rain, and along the path leading to the squalid huts visible in the distance, a woman with a child trudged with difficulty. The picture was filled with deep compassion and sadness.
autumn thaw
Kuindzhi began to feel the harmony of the dim colors of the northern landscape and for a while he completely surrendered to new impressions. The source of inspiration for the painter was the island of Valaam, located on Lake Ladoga. There he found the plots of his future landscapes - a huge, like the sea, a lake with clear water, granite boulders polished by rain and wind, dark mighty spruce and pine trees, thin luminous birch trunks, a sky overcast with clouds through which the pale northern sun sometimes peeped through. Kuindzhi spent the summer of 1870 on Valaam, working a lot and enthusiastically from nature. During this time he created dozens of sketches and drawings.
Returning to St. Petersburg, Kuindzhi painted two landscapes in 1873 - Lake Ladoga and On the Island of Valaam. At this time, interest in Kuindzhi's work arose not only among artists, but also among the public.
"Lake Ladoga" with a relatively small size looked like a monumental epic canvas. The canvas was divided into two unequal parts, contrastingly opposed to each other. Spectators saw the sunlit, stone-strewn coast, the transparent surface of the water and the high light sky with swirling clouds coexisted in the landscape in an unstable balance. The lightly written piece of blue sky, the warm ocher tone of the shore relieved tension. Harmony and peace reigned in the northern nature. The artist enthusiastically painted every pebble on the shore of the lake, achieving the illusion of the bottom shining through the water column. He considered this effect his discovery and was proud of it.
On the island of Valaam
In the landscape "On the Island of Valaam", the dramatic interpretation of nature, only outlined in "Lake Ladoga", was intensified. The emotional impact of the image on the viewer also increased. The spiritualized image of the harsh northern landscape, embodied by the artist in the picture, combined the features of the ideal and nature. A heavy stormy sky hung over the deserted northern island. Two thin trees with broken branches - a pine and a birch - illuminated by a harsh light, seemed especially lonely and fragile against the background of a dark solid spot of the forest. The slow rhythm of the image, the careful attention to detail, the accuracy of all elements of the composition contributed to the creation of an ideal image of the nature of the Russian North, severe and majestic, dramatic and spiritual. The painting "On the Island of Valaam" was the first work by Kuindzhi bought by Pavel Tretyakov for his Gallery. The painting "Snow" was awarded a bronze medal at an international exhibition in London. From that moment on, Kuindzhi took a prominent place among the leading artists of his time.
Shishkin I.I., Bryullov P.A., Kuindzhi A.I., Volkov E.E., Bakst L.S., Vil'e M.Ya. (and etc., group portrait Russian artists)
In 1873, after the great success of the Valaam landscapes, Kuindzhi went to his first trip abroad. His path lay through Germany, in Munich and Berlin he was expected to meet with excellent collections of old masters. Then the artist stopped in Paris, visited London, Basel and Vienna. After familiarizing himself with the works of foreign artists, Kuindzhi considered that Russian painting was much higher than the famous, but meaningless examples of the Paris Salon.
Returning from a trip abroad in 1874, Kuindzhi began work on a new landscape, The Forgotten Village, which was a natural consequence of Kuindzhi's close contact with the Wanderers. The artist exhibited it at the third exhibition of the Association. The picture was as if deliberately devoid of eye-pleasing details. Everything about her was gloomy, bleak and dull. The gray, without a single gap, dull sky, flat brown earth, the silhouettes of miserable village huts, barely visible against the sky, merged with the ground. The village seemed to have died out, only the smoke curling from the chimney said that it was inhabited. "Forgotten Village" - it was a picture folk life shown through the perception of nature.
forgotten village
For the fourth traveling exhibition in 1875, Kuindzhi prepared three works: "Chumatsky tract in Mariupol", "Steppe" and "Steppe in spring". The artist turned to the southern landscape, but the "Chumatsky tract in Mariupol" continued the line of the "Forgotten Village". Working on the landscape, the painter, first of all, sought to express his civic position. Acute social problems forced Kuindzhi to abandon the poeticization of reality. The artist again turned to the horizontally elongated format of the canvas, creating a sense of extension. The autumn steppe, flat and even to the lowest horizon, was filled with carts of Chumaks. A fine sowing rain blurred the outlines of objects, and the wagons in the background merged into a single stream. People sat dejectedly on the wagons or wandered, drowning in the mud, with difficulty pulling the ox carts, the dog howled. In the audience, this picture evoked a feeling of hopeless longing. The color scheme lost its monotony and was built on the subtlest relationships of cold lilac, grayish shades of clouds, thickening to purple spots of wagons, and warm yellowish-pinkish tones, in which the sky near the horizon was written. In the picture there was a technique characteristic of Kuindzhi - a certain generalization of the form, a transition from sculptural chiaroscuro modeling of volume to a spot. Some artists were perplexed by these new qualities and were the reason for the accusation of the painter that he did not complete his canvases.
Chumatsky tract in Mariupol
After the "Chumatsky tract in Mariupol", the artist seems to have begun a new page in his creative life: from now on, he painted landscapes in which he created ideal images, full of harmony and beauty. The appearance at the traveling exhibition of the paintings "Steppe" and "Steppe in Spring", completely devoid of pessimistic overtones, full of light and air, was enthusiastically received by the audience. With the "Steppe in the spring" began brilliant way Kuindzhi the poet, in love with the beauty of the world.
Steppe. Niva
Ladoga met the couple with a strong storm. For a long time the steamer could not moor to the shore of the Valaam monastery, the deck was overwhelmed by five-meter waves. The crew fought the elements all night, and by dawn the ship ran into a rock, and then the passengers fought for their lives in the launched boats. The boat of Arkhip and Vera Kuindzhi miraculously slipped into the quiet Nikonovskaya Bay. From Valaam Monastery Kuindzhi returned updated with new ideas and grandiose plans.
Later, Kuindzhi again went abroad, to Paris. The Impressionists did not attract Kuindzhi's attention. He studied the paintings of the painters of the Barbizon school. Kuindzhi's judgments about French painting were rather harsh.
In 1876, Kuindzhi showed a painting at the fifth traveling exhibition that literally stunned everyone - this is “Ukrainian Night”. Against the background of the silence of the night, the illuminated moonlight white Ukrainian huts, two pyramidal poplars and a quiet slow river. A world full of bliss, beauty and peace. "Ukrainian Night" was the beginning of the maturity of the master. The creative method of the artist was also determined. He refused to write out, detailing, generalized the subject, making the color spot the main thing in the composition. The construction of the picture was sustained in a leisurely, smooth rhythm of coloristic planes passing into each other. The foreground was painted almost sketchily, with broad strokes of deep of blue color. The emerald path shining under the light of the moon and the coldish yellowness of the walls of the huts effectively contrasted with the muted tone of blue and brownish hues.
Ukrainian night
A surprisingly original artist appeared in Russian art. "Ukrainian Night" was demonstrated at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1878. Along with it, "Steppe", "Forgotten Village", "On the Island of Valaam" were shown, but critics noticed only "Ukrainian Night". Professor of the Academy of Arts Pavel Chistyakov was indignant at the audacity of the artist, who "violated all the laws of painting." Tretyakov expressed his bewilderment at his unwillingness to buy a new painting. Repin explained this reaction by Kuindzhi's neglect of traditions, according to which the landscape could only frame a historical or social plot, carry the features of drama or comedy. Kuindzhi, always attentive to criticism, this time ignored the opinion of the public - he finally found the road that he was ready to go alone.
Unfortunately, after a short time the colors of the "Ukrainian Night" began to darken disastrously, the canvas to wither. In "Ukrainian Night" the main elements of Kuindzhi's style were revealed: the desire for decorativeness of color, the construction of a composition through the rhythmic alternation of generalized spots, the flattening of the volume of objects, the combination of a romantic interpretation of the image of nature with convincing life details. The artist was attracted by the light of the full moon and purple sunsets blazing with fire.
In 1878, at the sixth traveling exhibition, Kuindzhi presented two landscapes - “Sunset in the Forest” (“Twilight in the Forest”) and “Evening”. "Sunset in the Forest" (or "Gap", as the critics called the picture) again caused a storm of responses. The landscape could not be called luck. Kuindzhi closely filled the space with tree trunks stretched upwards with cut tops. The trunks were illuminated by the pink light of the setting sun, which broke into the landscape through a gap between the trees. In this landscape there was something salon-beautiful and theatrical. Was not accepted by the artists and "Evening". For The Evening, Kuindzhi again resorted to the national Ukrainian motif: a white hut with a thatched roof, immersed in the lush, curly greenery of trees. The walls of the hut were flooded with sunlight, which painted them in a bright pink-crimson color. Kuindzhi deliberately forced the color scheme, making it almost fantastic. For him, natural observations served only as a starting point for creating an ideal image. Contemporaries could not yet fully realize the significance of his innovations.
Whatever the attitude of artists towards Kuindzhi, his fame grew from exhibition to exhibition, becoming truly popular. People crowded in front of the master’s paintings, waiting for his works, hoping to see something new and unusual in them every time. At the seventh traveling exhibition in 1879, the artist had to present three paintings, and the exhibition was not opened, since Kuindzhi did not have time to meet the deadline. The artists were nervous, but the magical effect of the Kuindzhi name on the audience was so great that the opening took place a week later than scheduled. Finally, the artist presented three large canvases to the audience: "North", "After the Rain" and "Birch Grove".
North
In the "North" Kuindzhi again turned to the northern Russian nature. The picture was painted almost sketchily, with broad strokes freely lying on the surface of the canvas. In vertical canvas composition most occupied by the image of a high bright sky, written in dynamic thick strokes. The foreground of the picture was represented by a rocky mountain on which a lone pine tree grew - it was painted by the artist in the same sketchy and wide way. On the contrary, the plain opening up, as it were, from above, with a winding ribbon of the river, was immersed in shadow and worked out more carefully and generally. "North" logically completed the trilogy, begun by the artist back in 1870. The harsh northern nature no longer inspired Kuindzhi. Now he was looking in kind bright colors, tense contrasts of light and shadow, unusual lighting effects.
After the rain
The second landscape "After the Rain" can be called one of the artist's successes. In fact, there were only two large color masses in the landscape - a stormy sky painted in the most complex combinations of brown, blue, greenish hues and a meadow shimmering with bright greenery. Some small parts- houses, a grazing cow, trees - were concentrated in the center of the canvas and served only as staffing enlivening the composition. Light played an important role in the construction of space: the dark meadow in the foreground gradually brightened and, as if on the highest note, collided on the horizon with dark skies, which, on the contrary, was highlighted to the foreground.
Birch Grove
The Birch Grove enjoyed the greatest success at the exhibition. Next to her, all the other paintings seemed dull and dark, so bright and saturated was the sunlight. The newspapers were filled with laudatory articles. A cartoon appeared in one of the magazines, in which Kuindzhi was depicted at the time of work on Birch Grove: he had brushes in one hand, and an electric light bulb instead of a palette in the other, the sun rubbed the paints, and the moon squeezed them out of the tubes.
"Birch Grove" - the ideal of nature. There were no distracting details in the landscape, the clearing looked like a flat green spot, birch trunks with cut crowns looked like conditional scenery, the sky and dense crowns of trees in the background - a smooth-colored theatrical background. The sun became the main character in the picture. It painted details in pure, sonorous tones, flattened volumes, emphasized the radiant clarity and purity of the world. In the picture, the possibilities of Kuindzhi the colorist were fully revealed. The limited palette of "Birch Grove" was filled with the finest shades of green, red, yellow, which sounded differently in the light and in the shadow. The artist had an unusually acute susceptibility to color harmony. In general, Kuindzhi strove for a decorative sound of color in the landscape.
This quality, still unusual for Russian painting, was immediately noted by critics, who at first perceived it as a creative flaw. Focusing on the problems of color, Kuindzhi sacrificed the illusion of the volume of objects. For his contemporaries, such an interpretation of the natural motive seemed unacceptable, some accused Kuindzhi of ignorance and professional failure. The first among the critics was the landscape painter Mikhail Konstantinovich Klodt. It was because of him that Kuindzhi's quarrel with the Partnership took place, which ended with the artist's exit from the association of the Wanderers. In addition, Kuindzhi noticeably lost interest in the ideas of the Wanderers. In an effort to create an ideal image of nature, the artist turned to new plastic means of expression: he was occupied with the problem of form.
In the summer and autumn of 1880, Kuindzhi worked on new painting. Petersburg, rumors spread about the enchanting beauty of Moonlit Night on the Dnieper, a painting that became the most famous work Kuindzhi and, perhaps, the loudest phenomenon in Russian artistic life at the end of the 19th century. From early morning until late evening, endless crowds of people stretched from Nevsky Prospekt to the building of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists. A new miracle picture of Kuindzhi was shown there. "Moonlight Night on the Dnieper" hung on the wall alone. Kuindzhi ordered to drape the windows in the hall and illuminate the picture with a beam of electric light focused on it. Visitors entered the semi-dark hall and, spellbound, stopped in front of the cold glow of moonlight, which was so strong that some viewers tried to look behind the picture in search of a light bulb.
Moonlit night on the Dnieper
The sparkling silvery-greenish disk of the moon shone solemnly, flooding the land immersed in night sleep with a mysterious phosphorescent light. smooth mirror reflected the light of the water of the Dnieper, the walls of Ukrainian huts were snatched out of the velvety blue of the night, clouds were drawn in the bottomless depths of the sky with whimsical exquisite ornament. This majestic, solemn spectacle immersed in thoughts about eternity and the enduring beauty of the world. Achieving the desired effect, Kuindzhi applied a complex scenic reception. To deepen the space, the artist contrasted the warm reddish tone of the earth with cold silvery-green hues. Small dark strokes in the illuminated areas created a feeling of vibration of light. The foreground was sketched out, while the sky was worked out by numerous glazes and became compositional center paintings. The painting “Moonlight Night on the Dnieper” was bought by the Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich and, going on a trip around the world, he wished to take it with him to the ship. Humid, salt-soaked sea air, of course, had a negative effect on the condition of the paints. The landscape began to darken irreversibly.
Meanwhile, criticism recognized the unconditional victory for the artist. Turgenev and Dostoevsky admired the artist's work. Fyodor Mikhailovich called Kuindzhi's canvases "frozen prayer." Friends scattered in congratulations. Collectors besieged the artist's studio, many were ready to buy still unpainted paintings. Copies of paintings by the famous landscape painter began to appear in the salons, some of which were presented as originals. Kuindzhi had imitators.
D.I.Mendeleev and A.I.Kuindzhi playing chess, 1907.
In 1881, Kuindzhi exhibited in the same room and under the same lighting a new version of the Birch Grove, written for the Ural mining plant P.P. Demidov. The deal was upset, and the picture was bought for a fabulous sum by the millionaire F.A. Tereshchenko. The landscape was sold for seven thousand rubles. This is ten times more than the amounts that were paid for portraits to Kramskoy, for landscapes to Shishkin. Birch Grove enjoyed no less success with the public than Moonlit Night on the Dnieper. The space of the new version of the "Birch Grove" was densely filled with vertically elongated tree trunks, which parted in the center, forming a triangle, leading the eye into the depths. In comparison with the first version of the picture, here all the details were written out more carefully. Kuindzhi, referring to his favorite motif, tried, experimented, thought about various ways of expression.
Dnieper in the morning
The landscape "Dnepr in the morning" was written in a different pictorial manner. There was no bright light source here. Kuindzhi painted the majestic river in calm gray-bluish tones. Painted in shades of blue and purple the air eroded the clear outlines of the shores and steppes.
In 1882, Kuindzhi completed several versions of "Moonlight Night on the Dnieper", painted the "Moonlight Night on the Don" close to it, created the landscape "Rainbow", reminiscent of the painting "After the Rain". But none of these works enjoyed such popularity, which fell to the lot of famous landscapes 1881. The artist, faced with a difficult problem - to continue countless repetitions of an already found scheme or to look for new ways, preferred to close the doors of the workshop for almost thirteen years. “An artist needs to perform at exhibitions as long as he, like a singer, has a voice; as soon as the voice subsides, you have to leave,” he explained his unwillingness to participate in the expositions. But Kuindzhi did not spend a day without taking up a pencil or brush, he worked hard, but he did not let anyone into the studio and did not show his sketches to anyone. The audience could see them only after the death of the artist. In total, about five hundred sketches remain. The painter often rewrote his works, returning to them over a decade. Along with constant creative pursuits Kuindzhi showed his practical abilities. He became the owner of several tenement houses Petersburg, bought a plot of land in the Crimea. Kuindzhi, having become a millionaire, continued to live extremely modestly, but spent large sums to encourage poor young painters, he did not refuse help to anyone.
IN free time he visited theaters with Vera Elevferievna and musical evenings Went in for tea with old friends. The artist became even closer with Dmitri Mendeleev and his colleague physicist Fyodor Petrushevsky - the painter tried to realize his work, to comprehend the nature of light and color not only in practice. In addition, Kuindzhi became interested in the urban landscape, but not local and closed, he was attracted by illuminated panoramas. Fascinated by a new idea, he began to look for a suitable platform for drawing. She became the roof of an old apartment building on the Tenth Line of Vasilyevsky Island, from where a breathtaking view of Isaakievsky and Smolny Cathedrals, opened the Gulf of Finland. In the late 1880s, Kuindzhi bought the entire building, which was terribly neglected and in need of major repairs.
The artist himself took over the household, designed the heating system, changed the doors and locks himself, and participated in the decoration. He handed over the apartments put in order to friends and acquaintances, left himself one apartment for living and equipped a workshop there. Kuindzhi lived, as usual, modestly, they bought only the most necessary and simple furniture from furniture, and did without servants. But on the roof for all the inhabitants of the house, the artist laid out a beautiful garden. Where birds flocked from all over the city, whom Kuindzhi fed, painted and even treated. Cartoonist Pavel Shcherbov once even depicted the artist giving a crow an enema. Repin told how Arkhip Ivanovich performed a tracheotomy on a suffocating pigeon, Kuindzhi himself was very proud of the operation, during which he saved a wingless butterfly.
Kuindzhi not only served himself and his family, but was otherwise very ascetic. He wore old but good-quality clothes, traveled in third-class carriages, stayed in the most inexpensive hotels, often spent the night in tents or huts. The Kuindzhi family was very fond of traveling. In the summer, the couple invariably traveled to the Crimea, Ukraine, visited the Caucasus, traveled to the ancient cities on the Volga.
Arkhip Ivanovich in the studio, 1896.
Beginning in 1888, Kuindzhi turned to the images of the majestic mountain peaks of the Caucasus - Elbrus and Kazbek. Kuindzhi first came to the Caucasus at the invitation of N.A. Yaroshenko, but then went there until 1909. The number of Caucasian sketches was enormous. It is noteworthy that many sketches Kuindzhi wrote in the workshop from memory. The artist was attracted by the snowy peak of the mountain, either dazzling white, or bright crimson in the rays of the setting sun, or cold bluish in the evening.
Darial Gorge. Moonlight night
Flower garden. Caucasus
Around 1890, the artist turned to winter sketches - “Spots of moonlight in the forest. Winter", "Winter. Spots of light on the roofs of huts”, “Sun spots on frost” looked like excellent examples of the artist’s use of the possibilities of direct work on nature. With their help, Kuindzhi came to a generalization of the image of a winter landscape.
Moon spot in the winter forest
Sun spots on frost
Kuindzhi's landscapes of the 1890s lost the plastic clarity and harmony characteristic of his works of the late 1870s. They became more individual in mood, reflecting the feelings experienced by the artist himself. Nature seemed to Kuindzhi so grandiose that a person seemed to be something small and pitiful in it. Kuindzhi introduced disturbing, restless combinations of purple, blue, reddish-brown hues into his paintings. The theme of the frailty of earthly life and eternal beauty, the grandeur of nature, which appeared in the work of a number of artists of the late 19th century, was also heard in the works of Kuindzhi.
Despite the solitude in the workshop, Kuindzhi, nevertheless, was keenly interested in the artistic life of St. Petersburg and Moscow. He visited exhibitions, continued to communicate with the Wanderers. Kuindzhi believed that if the Wanderers were among the teachers of higher art school Russia, they will be able to win the minds of young people and have an impact on the future of Russian art. When a loud corruption scandal broke out at the Academy of Arts in 1888, the question arose of reforming the institution, finding new leadership and teachers. The fate of the Academy was determined by Alexander III himself. “Drive out everyone, call the Wanderers,” the emperor ordered.
Kuindzhi in 1889 accepted the offer of the leadership of the Academy of Arts to head the landscape painting workshop. The election of Kuindzhi as a professor was the reason for the artist's final break with the Wanderers.
IN teaching activities Kuindzhi showed all the originality of the master's personality. He did not put pressure on the students with the authority of the famous landscape painter, he respected their individuality. Later famous landscape painters N.K. Roerich and A.A. Rylov, V.G. Purvit and F.E. Rushits, K.F. Bogaevsky and A.A. Borisov came out of his workshop. Kuindzhi's love for his students can only be compared with a father's love for children, and they responded to the teacher with no less ardent feelings.
Work in Kuindzhi's workshop went without a special system, but the logic of training was thought out very carefully. Kuindzhi believed that for a novice artist, the most important thing is thoughtful, long-term work on nature, the ability to see nature and honestly convey what he saw. Therefore, he demanded that students bring sketches to each lesson, which they all discussed together. In his workshop, future artists copied the landscapes of the artists of the Barbizon school, painted still lifes from nature, academic productions. Kuindzhi attached great importance painting in the open air, but believed that the picture should be created from memory. Kuindzhi paid much attention to the acquisition of skills by students in the correct use of color harmonies, the master spoke a lot about composition, perspective, and the construction of space in a landscape.
In 1895, an exhibition of Kuindzhi's workshop was held at the Academy of Arts with great success. The master was able to bring up a group of like-minded people from people of different abilities, age, education, origin. Their works stood out against the academic background for their maturity, pictorial skill, and knowledge of the laws of composition. And this was the great merit of Kuindzhi. Unfortunately, after a conflict between students and professors, Kuindzhi was forced to leave the Academy. On February 15, 1897, Kuindzhi submitted his resignation to the President of the Academy of Arts. The students, offended by the rector's rude behavior, decided to go on strike. Kuindzhi stood up for the students, for which he was removed from teaching. A.A. Kiselev became the head of the landscape workshop. Kuindzhi's students decided to leave the Academy, but he convinced everyone to complete their studies. As a result, the student exhibition of landscape painters became a triumph for Kuindzhi the teacher. In the summer, Kuindzhi took his students to his Crimean estate, and in April 1898 he took all his pupils abroad at his own expense. He was convinced that this was how he should spend his capital. The money went to encourage young talents.
This ended Kuindzhi's short career in the teaching field, but he did not leave his students without help and support until the end of his life. “There is such poverty all around that you don’t know who is full, who is not ... After all, they are sitting, writing, because only we know how difficult it is. Very few people need pictures, and few people know them ... ”Kuindzhi said. When friends once reproached Kuindzhi that he was wasting money, he replied: “Have you forgotten how you yourself were in this position?”
A.I. Kuindzhi with a group of his students, 1896.
In 1901, for the first time after twenty years of seclusion, Kuindzhi decided to show his work to a select audience. Among them were students, an old friend of the artist D.I. Mendeleev, landscape painter A.A. Kiselev, architect N.V. Sultanov and journalists. Kuindzhi exhibited four paintings in the studio: "Evening in Ukraine", "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane", "Dnepr", a new version of "Birch Grove". The first spectators stood at the canvases amazed. Such a reaction was the most desirable for Kuindzhi. He opened the doors of the workshop, and a stream poured into the artist's house - friends, journalists and ordinary people. New articles fell upon Kuindzhi like an avalanche, but this time the critics scattered in compliments, they told about what they saw as a miracle. The painter later said: “I experienced something that I don’t want to experience to death. As if he was crucified on the cross.
Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane
More and more often, works of a deep dramatic beginning appeared in his work, accurately conveying state of mind artist. It is no coincidence that Kuindzhi's appeal to genre painting, a dramatic gospel story. “Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane” is a work in which the theme of loneliness, the doom of a person who came into conflict with society, was clearly heard. The plot of the picture was decided by the artist with landscape means. The composition of the work, the dramaturgy of the theme were developed quite straightforwardly: the lonely figure of Christ, bathed in moonlight, was located in the center, the persecutors of Christ were depicted in the shadow. Intensifying the tragic intensity of the scene, the artist sharply pushed additional colors: the background was painted in cold blue-green tones, the front in warm brown-reddish. In the figure of Christ, the colors suddenly lit up with blue, yellowish, pinkish hues. The artist conveyed the clash of good and evil by contrasting light and shadow.
Master's call to thematic picture- an episode in creative biography. The artist could express a wide variety of feelings in the landscape. But still, the main ideas of Kuindzhi in his work on the landscape were reduced to conveying the grandeur and eternal beauty of nature. The artist was looking for phenomena in the world around him that would amaze the viewer. This explains Kuindzhi's special predilection for depicting sunsets. "Red Sunset" was painted by the artist in the most complex gradations of red - from the brownish-brown tones of the earth in the foreground to the blazing shades of pink, crimson, purple in the sky. In “Sunset in the steppe on the seashore, Kuindzhi made a powerful color chord sound, consisting of pale shades yellow, bluish, pinkish through yellow, red, blue, purple tones the sky, turning into rich green, brown, brownish colors of the earth. Kuindzhi's "sunsets" are ambiguous: either they reflect the elegiac sadness of the contemplator at the sight of a fading luminary, or they are stormy and expressive.
Sunset in the steppe on the seashore
After the rain. Rainbow
Having stepped aside from teaching at the Academy of Arts, Kuindzhi remained a member of its council until the end of his life. He actively intervened in all current affairs, defending his views with harshness and intolerance towards opponents. His temperamental outbursts at council meetings led to quarrels with many friends. Kuindzhi continued to help young artists in every possible way. In 1904, he allocated a fund of one hundred thousand rubles to encourage talented youth, which was intended for the annual payment of prizes to students of the Academy of Arts. So the competition named after Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi appeared. The first competitive spring exhibition opened in 1905. But she could not serve the ideas that Kuindzhi nurtured. He dreamed of a union where all artists would be equal and could create freely, without regard to the tastes of customers. In 1908, a number of painters - participants in academic exhibitions - decided to create a new society, in which Kuindzhi offered to invest his millionth capital. It included N.K. Roerich, A.A. Rylov, A.A. Borisov, N.P. Khimona, V.I. Zarubin, V.E. and other artists. Thus, the core of the future association was Kuindzhi's students. Actually, it was a kind of "trade union" of artists, which was supposed to provide material and moral support to those in need, organize exhibitions, build exhibition spaces. By 1910, the Society consisted of one hundred and one people. Unfortunately, over the years of its existence, the association has not turned into a cohesive organization. Kuindzhi's dream of a creative unity of artists, of merging everyone into one family, was not destined to come true.
In 1909, Kuindzhi began to develop a severe heart disease.
One of the last photos of Kuindzhi.
During the period of improvement in the spring of 1910, Kuindzhi went to his Crimean estate, but on the way he felt so bad that he was forced to stop in Yalta. He developed pneumonia, he was tormented by debilitating attacks of suffocation. In a life-threatening condition, Kuindzhi was transferred to St. Petersburg. The suffering of the artist was unbearable. Roerich, Zarubin, Rylov were on duty near the teacher, replacing each other. July 11, 1910 Arkhip Kuindzhi died. His apartment struck everyone with its modesty, but the number of sketches stored in the studio was enormous. According to Kuindzhi's will, all his capital and all artistic heritage were transferred to a society that bore the name of the artist.
Day of farewell to Arkhip Kuindzhi.
Arkhip Kuindzhi was buried in the Necropolis of Masters of Arts of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Text prepared by Andrey Goncharov
Used materials:
Site materials www.art-assorty.ru
Text of the article by Marina Yardaeva
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Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi, being a famous landscape painter, did not take up plot work. The painting "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane" is an exception, this is his only work written on the gospel story. She appeared after a long creative break. And as always with Kuindzhi, the main active principle of the picture is Light. Today, on the 106th anniversary of the death of this great artist, a talented self-taught artist, let us remember the life of Kuinzhi and the unique in his creative heritage work.
"Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane" eternal theme search for many artists, different times and peoples. Many great ones began to write the gospel series, but not everyone was able, understood, felt, survived. Polenov, Ge, Kramskoy, Kuindzhi, Vrubel, Doré, Dürer, Gauguin... The theme is the same, but the paintings seem to be about different things: everyone sees something different, everyone has their own accents.
In this series, the painting by A.I. Kuindzhi has remained underestimated, as well as its author. In the world of academic painting, Kuindzhi was known as a lone rebel and a "savage" - his painting technique was so far from the established canons.
Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi was born in 1842 in Ukraine, on the outskirts of Mariupol, into a Russified Greek family. He was the son of a shoemaker, but, having lost his father and mother early, he was brought up by relatives. He did not get a formal education. From the age of ten, Arkhip worked - first herding geese, then he served for a building contractor, for a bread merchant.
Kuindzhi early felt a passion for drawing. His owner, the grain merchant Durante, gave him a letter of recommendation to I.K. Aivazovsky. In 1855, Kuindzhi went on foot to the Crimea from Mariupol. In the workshop of Aivazovsky in Feodosia, Kuindzhi received the basics of painting. And although he did not have a chance to learn from Aivazovsky himself, he considered himself his student.
From 1856 he worked as a retoucher for a photographer, continuing to paint on his own. Later Kuindzhi moved to Petersburg. Continuing to work as a retoucher, he attended the landscape class of the Academy of Arts as a volunteer. And although Kuindzhi did not complete the academic course, in 1878 he received the title of class artist of the 1st degree for a number of his paintings.
Genius or amateur?
Kuindzhi draws closer to the students of the Academy of Arts, who were looking for new ways in art - I. E. Repin, V. M. Vasnetsov, I. N. Kramskoy.
From the mid-1870s, the study of light in nature became a characteristic feature of his art. Kuindzhi was fascinated by lighting effects and the color contrasts they caused. He sought to faithfully reproduce natural light on canvas in the image of sunsets, sunrises, midday sun and moonlit nights. His canvas "Ukrainian Night" deeply impressed the audience with the magnificently embodied illusion of moonlight. "Master of Light" - such a nickname was given to Kuindzhi by his contemporaries.
His work caused stormy delight of the audience. But the reaction of venerable artists was more than restrained. Even the sensitive and far-sighted I.N. Kramskoy wrote about his paintings: “Something in his principles of color is completely inaccessible to me; perhaps this is a completely new pictorial principle ... his setting sun on the huts is decidedly beyond my comprehension. I see that the very light in the white hut is so true that it is just as tiresome for my eye to look at it as at living reality; five minutes later it hurts in my eye ... In short, I don’t quite understand Kuindzhi. ”
Light or backlight?
The novelty of Kuindzhi's paintings, with their generalized forms, sharpness and laconism of compositions, color and light effects, and a special poetic interpretation of nature, did not meet with proper understanding among artists. Benois believed that Kuindzhi “is a man of little culture, without any measure captured by his contemporaries, he did not create anything beautiful, artistically mature without regard. In technique, he remained an amateur, in motives he indulged the most rude demands of showiness, in the poetry of design he did not leave the "common places".
Indeed, in his canvases there are no cunning compositional schemes and complex author's intent. Only light vibration. Sometimes powerful, overwhelming will; sometimes soft. And sometimes cold, inspiring involuntary fear. Some called Kuindzhi "Russian Monet" for his virtuoso disclosure of the possibility of paint. Others accused the artist of seeking cheap effects, using secret techniques, such as hidden illumination of canvases.
In the end, at the peak of the noise around his name, Arkhip Ivanovich simply went into voluntary exile for 30 years. After that, until the end of his life, he did not open his workshop for anyone except the narrowest circle of friends.
"Some kind of dazzling, incomprehensible vision"
It was during this creative "silence" that the painting "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane" was painted. Russian writer I.I. Yasinsky, having looked at the picture “Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane” at the only show, wrote: “The black calico again gathered into folds - and we saw a dark, densely leafed cedar and Shrovetide garden on the Mount of Olives with a bright dark blue clearing in the middle, along which, doused with dark by moonlight, the Savior of the world walked. This is not a lunar effect, this is moonlight in all its indescribable strength, golden-silver, soft, merging with the greenery of trees and grass and penetrating the white fabrics of clothes. Some kind of dazzling, incomprehensible vision.
The expressiveness of the artistic means of the canvas "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane" allowed the artist to go beyond the boundaries of a specific plot. It is in this canvas that the magical light characteristic of Kuindzhi's works materializes into the figure of Christ.
The picture shocked the audience. It was not like any other works of contemporary artists who turned to the gospel theme. Most artists depict Jesus Christ either as a rebel or as a missionary, but in all of these cases He is a mortal man. Kuindzhi approached the image of Christ in a different way: there is no prosaic descriptiveness in the picture, few details acquire a symbolic meaning.
Light and shadow
Kuindzhi the landscape painter remains true to himself. The plot of the picture was decided by the artist with landscape means. The composition of the work, the dramaturgy of the theme were developed quite straightforwardly: the lonely figure of Christ, bathed in moonlight, was located in the center, the persecutors of Christ were depicted in the shadow. Intensifying the tragic intensity of the scene, the artist sharply jostled additional colors: the background was painted in cold blue-green tones, the front in warm brown-reddish. In the figure of Christ, the colors suddenly lit up with blue, yellowish, pinkish hues. The artist conveyed the clash of good and evil by contrasting light and shadow.
In the canvas "Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane", like in no other of his works, the pictorial method is expressed, based on the comparison of illuminated and darkened color planes. Kuindzhi uses the effect of moonlight to convey the tension and drama of the situation. The figure of Jesus is illuminated by an invisible source of light so that the illusion of the glow of the Savior Himself is created.
Light that has come into the world, so that everyone who believes in Him will not remain in darkness. This light outlines the figures of those following Christ, his successors. Looking closely, we can distinguish the figures of three adults and a child. Everyone who does evil hates the light and does not go to the light, lest his deeds be reproved, because they are evil, but he who does what is right goes to the light, so that his deeds may be manifest, because they are done in God (John 3:20). -21). The first lines refer to those who hide among the giant trees of the garden - to the Roman legionaries preparing to seize Jesus Christ. The entire Garden of Gethsemane is covered in impenetrable darkness.
I.E. Repin in a letter to I.S. Ostroukhov writes: “But the rumors about Kuindzhi are completely different: people are amazed, some even cry in front of his new works - they touch everyone.”
Artist and Christian
This picture most concentratedly embodied the artist's ideas about moral ideal. Kuindzhi interpreted the gospel story in accordance with his experience of the meaning of life: the figure of Christ illuminated by the moonlight really shows “light from light” in his picture and is depicted in sharp contrast with the surrounding darkness, with which the carriers of evil approaching Christ merge. The greatness and at the same time the lonely doom of the image of the Savior are conveyed by Kuindzhi with deep, hard-won expressiveness.
Arkhip Kuindzhi was Orthodox. Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky called his paintings frozen prayer. The artist often visited with his wife.
Perseverance, diligence, purposefulness, constancy in love and friendship - these are the personality traits of Arkhip Ivanovich that are primarily emphasized by his colleagues and contemporaries who described him.
There were no children in the family of Arkhip Ivanovich, but he managed to become a kindred person for many of his students. Kuindzhi was an excellent teacher; protecting his students from imitation, he sought to develop in each of them originality, to breathe into them his ardent love for nature.
He loved people not in words, but in deeds. Arkhip Kuindzhi was sincerely perplexed: “This is ... what is this? Now, if there is no money, then it means - be hungry, sick and you can’t study, as was the case with me ... ”And he tried to save his students from want. A man of exceptional kindness, he helped people a lot and disinterestedly, defended, donated huge sums to help strangers in need, and he and his wife lived modestly, did not keep servants. Readiness for effective help to others was the most touching feature of Kuindzhi until the very end. “From childhood, I got used to the fact that I am stronger and should help,” said Arkhip Ivanovich.
He died on July 11, 1910, and, feeling orphaned, several of his students and friends bequeathed after death to bury themselves next to Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi.
Prepared by Oksana BALANDINA
A Russified Greek, the son of a shoemaker, who failed to enter the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He must have been destined to be the greatest master landscape painting, through whose canvases we look admiringly at the Ukrainian reality of the late nineteenth century and the mountain landscapes of the Caucasus. A. Kuindzhi became a very wealthy man, but continued to live modestly, actively supporting young and poor artists.
Kuindzhi's biography is the life story of a man for whom creativity has always been in the first place. In his youth, he studied with Ivan Aivazovsky and even briefly became a hermit in order to fully devote himself to his beloved work. Arkhip Kuindzhi revealed the possibilities of the landscape in a completely new way, discovered many new color solutions and achieved an extraordinary intensity of colors. He became an excellent teacher and protected his students from imitation of recognized masters. Kuindzhi bequeathed his entire fortune to the Society of Artists, which after the death of the founder began to bear his name.
The mystery of the origin and birth of Kuindzhi
It is generally accepted that the artist was born on January 27 (15th according to the old style), 1841. But this date of birth is very approximate, since three passports of Arkhip Kuindzhi are stored in the archives. According to one document, the artist was born in 1841, another - in 1842, and the third passport indicates the year of birth in 1843.
Everything is ambiguous with the name of the master of landscape painting. He was the son of Ivan Yemendzhi and came from a family of Russified Greeks, of whom there are enough on the shores of the Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. True, the boy, apparently, got the name of his grandfather - a well-known jeweler in those parts - Kumyuji. Later, the surname was recorded in the wrong transcription, and now the whole world knows Arkhip Kuindzhi.
Orphanhood and poverty
Arkhip was born in the family of an ordinary shoemaker in January 1841 in Mariupol. The boy lived in utter poverty and was left without a father at the age of four, after a while his mother also died. Arkhip became an orphan. Relatives made sure that the boy received at least a primary education. Until about ten years old, he attended a Greek school not far from home, but could not continue his studies - Arkhip had to work to feed himself. Future artist Kuindzhi was hired for simple work from early childhood. He grazed geese and cows and helped his neighbors with household chores. At the age of eleven, the boy went to the contractor for the construction of the church, where he kept records of bricks. Then Arkhip served a wealthy grain merchant.
Acquaintance with Aivazovsky and youth
While serving as a grain merchant, the boy became interested in painting. He constantly drew: on scraps of paper, on the ground and fences, on the walls of buildings. The grain merchant (and, according to another version, a friend of Arkhip's employer) noticed the boy's penchant for painting and advised him to go to Feodosia to study with Ivan Aivazovsky. The teen listened to the advice.
At the age of fourteen, Arkhip Kuindzhi went to Feodosia from Mariupol. He nevertheless got to the place where Aivazovsky lived, but the artist did not appreciate the talent of the teenager, entrusting him to paint the fence and grind paint. Little help in mastering the skill was provided to Arkhip only by a young relative of Aivazovsky, who so far only copied paintings by a famous artist. Arkhip Kuindzhi stayed in Feodosia for a couple of months and went home. He was very upset.
Kuindzhi, whose biography was just beginning, managed to get a job as a retoucher with one of the local photographers in Mariupol. Later he went to Odessa and Taganrog. Arkhip Kuindzhi did the same - he retouched photographs. He considered opening his own photography studio, but was unable to raise the required amount.
Failure at admission and the title of a free artist
At 23, the young man decided at all costs to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. After two failures, Kuindzhi never managed to become a student of this institution. Then he painted and exhibited a painting at an academic exhibition, which, unfortunately, has not survived to this day. "Tatar saklya in the Crimea" was written under the obvious influence of Ivan Aivazovsky, but imitation of recognized masters is far from uncommon for young artists. After the exhibition, the Council decided that Arkhip Kuindzhi could become a free student of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and awarded the young man the title of a free artist. He was later allowed to take examinations in special subjects in order to qualify for a diploma. He became a volunteer only on the third attempt. This was the first success on the way to fame as a master of landscape painting.
Fascination with the ideas of the Wanderers
At the Academy, the artist Kuindzhi met many Wanderers (representatives of the Association of Traveling Artists), who significantly influenced his worldview. He began to communicate with Ivanov Repin and Ivan Kramskoy, which marked the beginning of a more realistic perception of reality.
The Wanderers are called the association of brush masters, which arose in the last third of the nineteenth century. Such artists actively opposed themselves to academic painting and were inspired by the ideas of populism - the "rapprochement" of the intelligentsia with the common people. The Wanderers organized traveling exhibitions and were active in educational activities.
Under the influence of this association, Arkhip Kuindzhi, whose biography at that time was already firmly connected with art, would write such works as "Autumn Mudslide", "Forgotten Village" and "Chumatsky Tract in Mariupol". Later, "Chumatsky tract ..." appeared at an exhibition in Paris, where it attracted the attention of visitors. The paintings were painted in dark colors, although the latter stood out with a brighter color scheme, which slightly relieved the feeling of heaviness and despondency. When writing these canvases, the artist sought to express his civic feelings, was driven by a social idea. The canvases were a success, and Kuindzhi, believing in his own strength, soon stopped attending classes at the Imperial Academy.
The heyday of creativity Arkhip Kuindzhi
In the seventies, the artist had already moved away from the ideas of the Wanderers and began to paint in his own unique style. Two of his paintings became a kind of breakthrough in landscape painting. Kuindzhi wrote "On the Island of Valaam" and "Lake Ladoga" in 1973. The canvases stood out for their very realistic rendering of nature with hints of romanticism and elegance. The work "On the Island of Valaam" was exhibited in Vienna, then it was acquired for his collection by the famous Moscow philanthropist P. Tretyakov.
But with the second picture of Kuindzhi, which became a symbol of the heyday of his work, everything is not so simple. The artist used the effect of the rocky bottom of the lake, translucent through the clear water. This technique was borrowed by R. Sudakovsky. And when ten years later his painting “Dead Calm” appeared, a real scandal erupted. Kuindzhi accused his friend of plagiarism, and St. Petersburg artists were divided into two camps - some supported Sudakovsky, others sided with Kuindzhi. In the end, the last one won.
Marriage and a series of creative successes
In 1875, Arkhip Kuindzhi visited Paris, where he was spotted choosing a wedding top hat. The master of painting was preparing to tie the knot with a girl whom he fell in love with in adolescence. From France, Kuindzhi went to Mariupol, where he married the daughter of a wealthy merchant, Vera Ketcherdzhi-Shapovalova. The romantic period in the life of the artist was marked by similar trends in creativity. "Steppe" and "Ukrainian Night" aroused the admiration of the public. He introduced bright colors into his work, began to use the technique of flattening objects in order to enhance the depth of space in paintings, and created an original decorative system. Arkhip Kuindzhi began to enjoy life and reflect it in his canvases, he no longer sought to interpret everything from the point of view of the Wanderers and abandoned their ideas.
Solo exhibitions and retreat
After the "Ukrainian Night" there were also the trilogy "Birch Grove", "North", "After the Rain" and "Evening in Ukraine", on which the artist worked for almost a quarter of a century. But “Moonlight Night on the Dnieper” Kuindzhi honored with a mono-exhibition. He draped the windows with thick cloth and directed a beam of light onto the canvas. The mono-exhibition caused a real stir. "Moonlight Night on the Dnieper" for Kuindzhi became the peak of his creative career.
True, the colors that were used to create the picture were very specific. They began to decompose and darken when exposed to sunlight and air. Subsequently, this played a cruel joke. Many collectors dreamed of acquiring the painting, but Kuindzhi sold it to Prince Konstantin. He took the canvas on a trip around the world. Under the influence of sea air and sunlight, the colors darkened, and the canvas lost its former splendor.
After the mono-exhibition, the artist "shut up" for a long twenty years. Arkhip Kuindzhi, whose biography has recently taken a sharp turn, decided to retire to the studio and not show his masterpieces to anyone. He's probably just tired. Critics believed that the painter had exhausted himself, but this was not so. The artist continued to create paintings that later became famous.
In 1886, A. Kuindzhi bought a plot in the Crimea. Over time, where at first there was only a small hut, an estate arose. Kuindzhi's dacha in the Crimea repeatedly received the painter's students during the years of his life. The estate is still the base for the summer practice of art students. At the age of sixty, the painter Kuindzhi made an exception and showed the public several of his last paintings - the finished “Evening in Ukraine”, the third version of “Birch Grove”, the new “Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane” and “Dnepr in the Morning”. They started talking about the artist again.
Work as a professor-head of the workshop
Arkhip Kuindzhi worked as a professor for only three years, but during this time he managed to teach the basics of painting to many young students and even became a mentor to several well-known artists today. He was an excellent teacher. Kuindzhi zealously protected young talents from imitation. He sought to develop in each of the students the originality and their own vision of reality, taught them not to look back at the ideas of others.
On the commemorative plaque, which is located at the entrance to the Kuindzhi estate in Alupka, there is even a record that he was called a "teacher of life." Arkhip Kuindzhi "educated" N. Roerich - an unsurpassed master, A. Rylov - a singer of Russian nature, K. Bogaevsky - a singer of the Crimea and others.
Charity
Kuindzhi not only painted, but also actively sold his canvases to collectors and "the powers that be." On his work, the painter earned a fortune, but continued to live modestly, making significant donations. At the church where little Arkhip was once baptized, he opened a school as an adult. Kuindzhi donated one hundred thousand rubles to the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, organized a mutual benefit fund for students and sponsored the Society for the Encouragement of Artists.
The paintings of the painter were sold at incredibly high prices. One of famous artists, P. Chistyakov, even once allowed himself to speak caustically on this topic. He said that Kuindzhi is money. It is quite possible that a colleague "in the shop" would not be so cynical if he knew where these funds are being spent.
Severe illness and death of the artist
Almost at the age of seventy, Kuindzhi fell ill with pneumonia. The artist was in the Crimea, then his wife moved him to St. Petersburg. But the painter's state of health was also affected diseased heart. Hope for recovery with each passing day was less and less. Arkhip Kuindzhi died on July 11 (24), 1910. The artist was buried at the Smolensk Orthodox cemetery.
Memory
In memory of the outstanding artist, several museums were opened: the Kuindzhi Museum in St. Petersburg, the Mariupol Museum named after A. Kuindzhi, the museum-apartment in Alupka. Streets and avenues in many Russian cities were named after him, commemorative plaques and busts were erected. The Society of Artists, founded by the painter, still bears his name. Kuindzhi's painting is admired by contemporaries.
