08.05.2015
Description of the painting by Ivan Kramskoy “Moonlit Night”
Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy is a famous Russian artist. He is the author of paintings that are still popular among art connoisseurs to this day. Ivan Nikolaevich painted many paintings, the plot of which unfolded in the evening or late at night. But one of the best paintings of this kind is considered to be a painting called “Moonlit Night”. This canvas very accurately conveys the beauty and romance of a summer night. What could be more beautiful than a warm summer night, through the darkness of which a ray of the full moon breaks through. The main character of the picture is a woman dressed in a fabulous white dress. A woman sits on a bench and from her bowed head and thoughtful gaze you can understand that she is thinking or dreaming about something.
The bench on which the woman is sitting is located opposite the pond. Behind the miniature beauty, militant poplars rise. The poplars are not completely depicted in the picture - it seems that their tops go far beyond the boundaries of the picture. A woman, deep in thought, looks at a pond. She is sad and very calm. It is noticeable that she is glad to have the opportunity to retire from the endless noise of everyday life. Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy very well conveyed to the audience the naturalness of nature and the atmosphere that permeated the place near the pond. Basically, the accurate transmission of the atmosphere of that place is facilitated by the large number of highlights that the painter used. Night calm and tranquility, the dreaminess of a woman sitting near a pond, and a moonbeam breaking through the trees - the artist was able to convey all this with great skill. It is not for nothing that this particular work was noted by critics who lived at the same time as Ivan Nikolaevich Kramskoy. This painting helped critics put Kramskoy on a par with such legends of Russian painting as
The tragic fate of "Moonlit Night on the Dnieper" October 18th, 2016
“Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” (1880) is one of the most famous paintings by 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 through artistic means, and they 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.
Which? This is what we are about to find out...
In the summer and autumn of 1880, during the break with the Wanderers, A.I. Kuindzhi worked on a new painting. Rumors spread throughout the Russian capital about the enchanting beauty of “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper.” For two hours on Sundays, the artist opened the doors of his studio to everyone, and the St. Petersburg public began to besiege it long before the completion of the work. This painting gained truly legendary fame. I.S. Turgenev and Ya. Polonsky, I. Kramskoy and P. Chistyakov, D.I. Mendelev came to the workshop of A.I. Kuindzhi, and the famous publisher and collector K.T. Soldatenkov had an eye on the painting. Directly from the workshop, even before the exhibition, “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” was bought by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich for huge money. And then the painting was exhibited in St. Petersburg. This was the first exhibition of one painting in Russia.
The work was exhibited in a separate hall of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists on Bolshaya Morskaya. The hall was not illuminated, only a bright electric beam fell on the picture. This deepened the image even more, and the moonlight became simply dazzling. And decades later, witnesses of this triumph continued to recall the shock experienced by the audience who “got” the picture. It was the “worthy ones” - on exhibition days, Bolshaya Morskaya was densely packed with carriages, and a long line lined up at the doors to the building and people waited for hours to see this extraordinary work. To avoid crowding, the public was allowed into the hall in groups.
Roerich also found Maxim’s servant alive, who received rubles (!) from those who tried to get to the painting out of turn. The artist’s performance with a personal exhibition, and even consisting of only one small painting, was an unusual event. Moreover, this picture did not interpret some unusual historical plot, but a landscape of a very modest size. But A.I. Kuindzhi knew how to win. The success exceeded all expectations and turned into a real sensation.
A.I. Kuindzhi was always very attentive to the display of his paintings, placing them so that they were well lit, so that they were not disturbed by neighboring paintings. This time “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” hung on the wall alone. Knowing that the effect of moonlight would be fully manifested under artificial lighting, the artist ordered the windows in the hall to be draped and the painting illuminated with a beam of electric light focused on it. Visitors entered the dimly lit hall and, spellbound, stood before the cold glow of moonlight. A wide space stretching into the distance opened up before the audience; The plain, crossed by a greenish ribbon of a quiet river, almost merges at the horizon with a dark sky covered with rows of light clouds. In the heights they parted slightly, and the moon looked through the resulting window, illuminating the Dnieper, the huts and the web of paths on the near bank.
And everything in nature fell silent, enchanted by the wonderful radiance of the sky and the Dnieper waters. The sparkling silver-greenish disk of the moon flooded the earth immersed in the peace of the night with its mysterious phosphorescent light. It was so strong that some of the spectators tried to look behind the picture to find a lantern or lamp. But there was no lamp, and the moon continued to emit its bewitching, mysterious light. The waters of the Dnieper reflect this light like a smooth mirror, and the walls of Ukrainian huts turn white from the velvety blue of the night. This majestic spectacle still immerses viewers in thoughts about eternity and the enduring beauty of the world. So, before A.I. Kuindzhi, only the great N.V. Gogol sang about nature. The number of sincere admirers of A.I. Kuindzhi’s talent grew; a rare person could remain indifferent to this picture, which seemed like witchcraft.
A.I. Kuindzhi depicts the celestial sphere as majestic and eternal, striking viewers with the power of the Universe, its immensity and solemnity. Numerous attributes of the landscape - huts creeping along the slope, bushy trees, gnarled stems of tartar - are absorbed in darkness, their color is dissolved in a brown tone. The bright silver light of the moon is shaded by the depth of blue. With his phosphorescence, he transforms the traditional motif with the moon into one so rare, meaningful, attractive and mysterious that it transforms into poetically excited delight. There were even suggestions about some unusual colors and even strange artistic techniques that the artist allegedly used. Rumors about the secret of A.I. Kuindzhi’s artistic method, the secret of his colors circulated even during the artist’s lifetime, some tried to catch him in tricks, even in connection with evil spirits. Perhaps this happened because A.I. Kuindzhi concentrated his efforts on the illusory transfer of the real effect of lighting, on the search for such a composition of the picture that would allow the most convincing expression of the feeling of broad spatiality.
Famous artist Arkhip Kuindzhi, 1907
And he coped with these tasks brilliantly. In addition, the artist defeated everyone in distinguishing the slightest changes in color and light relationships (for example, even during experiments with a special device that were carried out by D.I. Mendeleev and others). Some have argued for the use of phosphorus-based chemicals. However, this is not entirely true. The unusual color structure of the canvas plays a decisive role in creating an impression. By using additional colors in the painting that enhance each other, the artist achieves the incredible effect of the illusion of lunar color. True, it is known that experiments did take place. Kuindzhi intensively used bitumen paints, but did not use phosphorus. Unfortunately, due to the careless mixing of chemically incompatible paints, the canvas became very dark.
When creating this canvas, A.I. Kuindzhi used a complex painting technique. For example, he contrasted the warm reddish tone of the earth with cold silvery shades and thereby deepened the space, and small dark strokes in the illuminated areas created a feeling of vibrating light. All newspapers and magazines responded to the exhibition with enthusiastic articles, and reproductions of “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” were sold in thousands of copies throughout Russia. The poet Ya. Polonsky, a friend of A.I. Kuindzhi, wrote then: “I positively don’t remember standing in front of any picture for so long... What is this? Picture or reality? In a golden frame or through an open window, did we see this month, these clouds, this dark distance, these “quivering lights of sad villages” and these shimmers of light, this silvery reflection of the month in the streams of the Dnieper, skirting the distance, this poetic, quiet, majestic night? » The poet K. Fofanov wrote the poem “Night on the Dnieper,” which was later set to music.
The audience was delighted by the illusion of natural moonlight, and people, according to I.E. Repin, standing in “prayerful silence” in front of the canvas by A.I. Kuindzhi, left the hall with tears in their eyes: “This is how the artist’s poetic charms acted on the chosen ones 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? So, in order to avoid such 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 the reason for this is the special attitude towards the canvas of its owner, Grand Duke Constantine.
Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, who bought the painting, did not want to part with the canvas, even when going on a trip around the world. I.S. Turgenev, who was in Paris at that time (in January 1881), was horrified by this thought, about which he indignantly wrote to the writer D.V. Grigorovich: “There is no doubt that the painting... will return completely ruined , thanks to the salty vapors of the air, etc.” He even visited the Grand Duke in Paris while his frigate was in the port of Cherbourg, and persuaded him to send the painting to Paris for a short time.
I.S. Turgenev hoped that he would be able to persuade him to leave the painting at the exhibition in the Zedelmeyer Gallery, but he failed to persuade the prince. The humid, salt-saturated sea air, of course, negatively affected the composition of the colors, and the landscape began to darken. But the lunar ripples on the river and the radiance of the moon itself are conveyed by the genius A.I. Kuindzhi with such power that, looking at the picture even now, viewers immediately fall under the power of the eternal and Divine.
In fairness, it should be noted that due to the enormous popularity of the painting, Kuindzhi created two more copies of Moonlit Night, the first painting is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the second is in the Livadia Palace in Yalta and the third in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
sources
Among the paintings with which mystical legends are associated, I would like to note the paintings of the artist Ivan Kramskoy. His works were highly appreciated by his contemporaries and aroused many rumors about his mystical influence on the viewer.
Ivan Kramskoy, "Mermaids" (1871)
The painting "Mermaids" was painted based on Nikolai Gogol's story "May Night or the Drowned Woman." The painting depicts drowned girls who, according to Slavic belief, became mermaids after their death.
While working on the canvas, the artist set himself the task of conveying the unique beauty of moonlight. “I’m still trying to catch the moon now... The moon is a difficult thing...”- wrote Kramskoy.
Superstitious contemporaries feared that Gogol's plot would drive the artist crazy. In his painting, the world of ghosts comes to life in the moonlight. Guests of another world - mermaids appear before the viewer by the pond. Kramskoy managed to create a fantastic picture.
“I’m glad that I didn’t completely break my neck with such a plot, and if I didn’t catch the moon, then something fantastic still came out...”- noted the artist.
“The extreme verisimilitude of a fantastic dream,” critics wrote enthusiastically.
The public, tired of fashionable satirical realism, accepted Kramskoy’s work with interest.
“We are so tired of all these gray peasants, clumsy village women, worn-out officials... that the appearance of a work like “May Night” should make the most pleasant, refreshing impression on the public.”
Soon the mysterious lunar picture had its own legends. They said that at the exhibition next to the “Mermaids” there was hanging a painting by Savrasov “Rooks”, which suddenly fell from the wall at night.
At night, in the hall of the Tretyakov gallery, which bought the painting, one could hear sad deathly singing, and one could feel a sudden coolness, like from a night pond. They said that young ladies who looked at the painting for a long time went crazy and threw themselves into the river.
The old maid advised the master to hang the picture in the far corner so that the light would not fall on it during the day. The old woman claimed that then the mermaids would stop frightening the living. Surprisingly, as soon as the picture was removed into the darkness, the afterlife singing stopped.
"Stranger" or "Unknown", (1883)
The picture caused a heated discussion - who is this mysterious person looking down on the public? Aristocrat or lady of the demimonde?
“Her outfit is a “Francis” hat, trimmed with elegant light feathers, “Swedish” gloves made of the finest leather, a “Skobelev” coat, decorated with sable fur and blue satin ribbons, a muff, a gold bracelet - all these are fashionable details of a women’s costume of the 1880s. XX years, claiming to be expensive elegance. However, this did not mean belonging to high society; rather, on the contrary, the code of unwritten rules excluded strict adherence to fashion in the highest circles of Russian society.”
It is believed that Kramskoy was inspired to paint the picture by the story of the peasant woman Matryona Savishna, with whom the nobleman Bestuzhev fell in love. The young master came to the village to visit his aunt and was fascinated by the young maid Matryona, who was taken from the village. Bestuzhev decided to marry Matryona despite the condemnation of society. His relatives in St. Petersburg taught a simple girl etiquette and dancing. The former lady once met Matryona in St. Petersburg, but the maid, who became a noble lady, proudly rode past her mistress.
The artist heard this story from Matryona while visiting the Bestuzhivys. “Oh, what a meeting I just had!” - Matryona boasted, talking about how she drove past the lady.
Portrait of Ivan Kramskoy by Ilya Repin
The artist decided to depict in the picture the episode when the former maid meets her mistress and gives her an arrogant look.
They said that love for a “stranger” did not bring happiness to Bestuzhev, he often had to fight a duel with obsessive admirers of his wife, and many unfortunate people committed suicide because of the proud beauty. She had an amazing magical influence on men.
Concerned relatives of Bestuzhev achieved that the marriage was annulled. The “stranger” returned to her native village, where she soon died.
The fatal fame of the painted “stranger” created the reputation of a cursed painting.
They said that the buyers of the painting were haunted by misfortunes - ruin, sudden death of loved ones, madness. The unfortunate owners claimed that the painting was sucking all the vitality out of them. Even the philanthropist Tretyakov refused to buy the painting, fearing a curse. The painting entered the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery in 1925.
According to one of Kramskoy’s legends, the kept woman of industrialist Savva Morozov posed for “The Stranger,” who died under the wheels of a carriage, and now her ghost wanders the streets of Moscow.
It was claimed that a curse fell on Kramskoy's family; his sons died within a year of painting the fatal picture. If you look at the dates of death of Kramskoy’s children, this legend is easy to refute. The youngest son Mark died in 1876 long before The Stranger was written. The eldest sons: Nikolai (1863-1938) and Anatoly (1865-1941) survived their father.
"Inconsolable Grief" (1884)
In memory of his deceased youngest son, Kramskoy created the painting “Inconsolable Grief,” which depicts a grieving woman in mourning at the coffin.
“The woman in the black dress irrefutably simply, naturally stopped at the box of flowers, one step from the viewer, in the only fatal step that separates grief from the one who sympathizes with grief - amazingly visibly and completely lay down in the picture in front of the woman, this glance only outlined emptiness. The woman's gaze (the eyes are not tragically dark, but everyday red) imperiously attracts the viewer's gaze, but does not respond to it. In the depths of the room, on the left, behind the curtain (not behind the curtain-decoration, but the curtain - an ordinary and inconspicuous piece of furniture) is slightly open door, and there is also emptiness, an unusually expressive, narrow, high emptiness, penetrated by the dull red flame of wax candles (all that remains of the lighting effect)"- wrote critic Vladimir Porudominsky.
Sketch of a painting
Kramskoy donated the painting to the Tretyakov Gallery. “Accept this tragic painting as a gift from me, if it is not superfluous in Russian painting and finds a place in your gallery.”- wrote the artist. The noble Tretyakov accepted the painting and persistently handed the fee to Kramskoy.
“I was in no hurry to purchase this painting in St. Petersburg, probably knowing that due to its content it would not find buyers, but I then decided to purchase it.”- wrote Tretyakov.
“It is absolutely fair that my painting “Inconsolable Grief” will not find a buyer, I know this just as well, perhaps even better, but a Russian artist is still on the path to his goal, as long as he believes that serving art is his task, until he has mastered everything, he is not yet spoiled and therefore is still able to write a thing without counting on sales. Whether I'm right or wrong, in this case I only wanted to serve art. If no one needs the painting now, it is not superfluous in the school of Russian painting in general. This is not self-delusion, because I sincerely sympathized with my mother’s grief, I searched for a long time for a pure form and finally settled on this form because for more than 2 years this form did not arouse criticism in me ... "- the artist reasoned.
Sketch of a painting
“This is not a picture, but reality”- Repin admired the depicted depth of feelings.
The legend of a ghostly woman in black who lost her child quickly spread through folklore.
She is mentioned in the poem "Moscow-Petushki" and pursues the frightened hero in a train carriage “a woman, all in black from head to toe, stood at the window and, indifferently looking at the darkness outside the window, pressed a lace handkerchief to her lips.”
"Moonlit Night" (1880)
Moonlight attracted the artist, who sought to “catch the moon.” Interestingly, two ladies posed for the picture. The artist’s first model was Anna Popova (Mendeleev’s wife), and then Elena Matveeva (Tretyakov’s wife) posed for the painting.
The play of moonlight in the picture simply captivates the viewer.
In conclusion, I would like to add that Ivan Kramskoy created portraits of the royal family.
Portrait of Emperor Alexander III
Portrait of Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Alexander III
Portrait of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, mother of Alexander III
, oil . 178.8 × 135.2 cm
"Moonlight night"- painting by Russian artist Ivan Kramskoy (1837-1887), painted in 1880. It is part of the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery (inv. 676). The size of the painting is 178.8 × 135.2 cm.
Story
Kramskoy began work on the painting “Moonlit Night” in 1879. The painting was presented at the 8th exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions (“Peredvizhniki”) in St. Petersburg in 1880.
In 1880, the painting was purchased from the author by Sergei Tretyakov and became part of his collection. In 1892, after the death of Sergei Tretyakov, according to his will, the painting was transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery.
Description
The painting “Moonlit Night” is considered one of Kramskoy’s most lyrical paintings. It shows a woman in a white dress sitting on a bench under trees in the moonlight.
In one of the early versions, the model for the image of the woman was Anna Ivanovna Popova (1860-1942), the future wife of Dmitry Mendeleev. For the final version of the painting, Sergei Tretyakov’s second wife, Elena Andreevna Tretyakova (nee Matveeva), posed for the artist.
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Notes
Links
- in the Tretyakov Gallery database
Excerpt characterizing Moonlit Night (painting by Kramskoy)
“Cette armee russe que l"or de l"Angleterre a transportee, des extremites de l"univers, nous allons lui faire eprouver le meme sort (le sort de l"armee d"Ulm)", ["This Russian army, which English gold was brought here from the end of the world, will experience the same fate (the fate of the Ulm army).”] he recalled the words of Bonaparte’s order to his army before the start of the campaign, and these words equally aroused in him surprise at the brilliant hero, a feeling of offended pride and hope of glory. "What if there is nothing left but to die? he thought. Well, if necessary! I will do it no worse than others."Prince Andrei looked with contempt at these endless, interfering teams, carts, parks, artillery and again carts, carts and carts of all possible types, overtaking one another and jamming the dirt road in three or four rows. From all sides, behind and in front, as long as one could hear one could hear the sounds of wheels, the rumble of bodies, carts and carriages, the clatter of horses, blows of a whip, shouts of urging, curses of soldiers, orderlies and officers. Along the edges of the road one could constantly see either fallen, skinned and unkempt horses, or broken carts, in which lonely soldiers were sitting, waiting for something, or soldiers separated from their teams, who were heading in crowds to neighboring villages or dragging chickens, sheep, hay or hay from the villages. bags filled with something.
On the descents and ascents the crowds became thicker, and there was a continuous groan of shouts. The soldiers, sinking knee-deep in mud, picked up guns and wagons in their hands; whips beat, hooves slid, lines burst and chests burst with screams. The officers in charge of the movement drove forward and backward between the convoys. Their voices were faintly audible amid the general roar, and it was clear from their faces that they despaired of being able to stop this disorder. “Voila le cher [“Here is the dear] Orthodox army,” thought Bolkonsky, remembering the words of Bilibin.
Wanting to ask one of these people where the commander-in-chief was, he drove up to the convoy. Directly opposite him was riding a strange, one-horse carriage, apparently constructed at home by soldiers, representing a middle ground between a cart, a convertible and a carriage. The carriage was driven by a soldier and sat under a leather top behind an apron, a woman, all tied with scarves. Prince Andrei arrived and had already addressed the soldier with a question when his attention was drawn to the desperate cries of a woman sitting in a tent. The officer in charge of the convoy beat the soldier, who was sitting as a coachman in this carriage, because he wanted to go around others, and the whip hit the apron of the carriage. The woman screamed shrilly. Seeing Prince Andrei, she leaned out from under her apron and, waving her thin arms that had jumped out from under the carpet scarf, shouted:
- Adjutant! Mr. Adjutant!... For God's sake... protect... What will this happen?... I am the doctor's wife of the 7th Jaeger... they won't let me in; we fell behind, lost our own...
- I’ll break you into a cake, wrap it up! - the embittered officer shouted at the soldier, - turn back with your whore.
- Mr. Adjutant, protect me. What is this? – the doctor shouted.
- Please let this cart pass. Can't you see that this is a woman? - said Prince Andrei, driving up to the officer.
The officer looked at him and, without answering, turned back to the soldier: “I’ll go around them... Back!...
“Let me through, I’m telling you,” Prince Andrei repeated again, pursing his lips.
- And who are you? - the officer suddenly turned to him with drunken fury. - Who are you? Are you (he especially emphasized you) the boss, or what? I'm the boss here, not you. “You go back,” he repeated, “I’ll smash you into a piece of cake.”
The officer apparently liked this expression.
“He shaved the adjutant seriously,” a voice was heard from behind.
The painting “Moonlit Night” was painted by I. Kramskoy in 1880. Night landscapes are not uncommon in the artist’s work (remember his “May Night”, “Evening at the Dacha”, “Yuletide Fortune Telling”). And in “Moonlit Night” - one of his most famous paintings - Kramskoy again takes on the solution of a complex coloristic problem. He strives to convey the unusualness of night lighting - mysterious, changing everything around him beyond recognition.
The painting “Moonlit Night,” according to many, is one of Kramskoy’s most dazzling and vibrant “nocturnes.” In front of us on the canvas is a beautiful young woman in a white dress on a bench on the shore of a pond in an old park.
Moonlit summer night. Everything around is flooded with silvery moonlight. Nothing breaks the silence. The woman is immersed in memories, there is a light sadness on her face. The author gave the heroine of the painting a resemblance to the wife of S. Tretyakov, the buyer of the painting and P. Tretyakov’s brother.
The composition of the picture is quite original. The female figure turns white against the background of large poplars - tall, directed upward. They seem to set a different scale for all thoughts, talk about the existence of another path beyond the boundaries of ordinary and familiar life.
Nature on the canvas is depicted in accordance with the traditions of the romantic school of Russian landscape of the 19th century. In the composition of the painting, in the expression of color, the influence of Kramskoy’s friends and associates A. Kuindzhi and F. Vasiliev is very noticeable. The lighting is wonderfully conveyed - not only of the female figure, but also of the entire landscape setting. The completeness of all the picturesque lines is so impeccable that it may even seem excessive.
Many critics considered Kramskoy’s “Moonlit Night” to be a banal work, pandering to the tastes of the public. In fact, the idea of the canvas is much deeper. It is associated with questions of existence, earthly values, the illusory nature of earthly feelings and beauty.
In addition to the description of the painting by I. N. Kramskoy “Moonlit Night”, our website contains many other descriptions of paintings by various artists, which can be used both in preparation for writing an essay on the painting, and simply for a more complete acquaintance with the work of famous masters of the past.
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