Arkhip Kuindzhi moonlit night. Moonlit night on the Dnieper A


Target: Reveal the figurative and meaningful meaning of the painting by A. I. Kuindzhi “ Moonlight night on the Dnieper"

Lesson objectives:

Guidelines: This lesson is an integral part of lessons devoted to the analysis and perception of works landscape painting. It is necessary to organize the work in the lesson in such a way that it is communication with art and true beauty. And this can only be done by using a variety of forms and methods of teaching and, of course, using ICT. The lesson is structured taking into account the use of ICT. When preparing for a lesson, it is appropriate (yes, probably necessary!) to use a m/m presentation. I believe that a presentation compiled in Power Point format incorporates everything: clarity, colorfulness, and accessibility. It allows you to analyze the painting in detail and follow the stages of the artist’s work. When preparing for the lesson, you can use the text and illustrative material from the disc “Masterpieces of Russian Painting.” If it is not possible to present this lesson using computer technology, then you can use illustrative material from the “Appendix” folder.

Lesson design: m/m Power presentation Point “The story of one painting. Master of wondrous light. A. Kuindzhi”, disc “Masterpieces of Russian Painting”, illustrative material.

Epigraph: “Kuindzhi is an artist of light. Light is charm, and the power of light, and its illusion were his goal. Of course, the whole essence of this phenomenon lay in Kuindzhi himself, in his phenomenality, personal innate originality. He listened only to his genius - the demon... "I. E. Repin

Teacher's opening speech

An artist cannot create if his soul is dead and his heart is cold. He will not be a painter or sculptor if his feelings do not perceive the colors of life, the harmony of nature, if he is not touched by the fate of people.

Leonardo da Vinci called painting “silent poetry.” The picture is silent. Sounds and words are only assumed by the viewer. The picture is motionless. A true artist does not copy reality, but reproduces and interprets it in his own way.

In Russia, nature has always been a muse, both for poets and artists.

Regardless of the artist’s style, his technique or imagination, a landscape painted from life by the hand of a master will always be more than just a frozen moment or a beautiful view - such work “lives” outside of time and place.

Why are great works of art so valued by people and never die? This is the question that you and I must answer during today's lesson.

1. Biography of the artist

On January 27, 1842, Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi was born in Mariupol into the family of a poor shoemaker, Greek by nationality. The surname Kuindzhi was given to him by his grandfather’s nickname, which in Tatar means “goldsmith.” It is curious that the artist’s elder brother actually Russified this surname and began to call himself Spiridon Zolotarev.

Having been orphaned early, the boy lived with relatives and worked for strangers.

His love for drawing manifested itself in childhood; he drew everywhere he could - on the walls of houses, fences, scraps of paper. In Feodosia he met Aivazovsky. According to the documents, Kuindzhi was listed as a “student of Aivazovsky’s school.” There is a certificate issued to “a student of Professor Aivazovsky’s school, Arkhip Kuindzhi, that for his good knowledge of landscape painting, the Academy Council ... recognized him as worthy of the title of free artist.”

Due to poor artistic preparation, he took exams twice and failed twice. In 1868, he presented the painting “Tatar Saklya” at an academic exhibition, for which he received the title of non-class artist. In the same year he was accepted as a volunteer student at the Academy.

The 1882 exhibition was the last for the artist. We've arrived long years silence.

In 1898, Kuindzhi, at his own expense, organized a trip abroad for young artists (the childless Kuindzhi treated his students as his own children) and donated one hundred thousand rubles to the Academy for this purpose. When the students decided to create a Society named after A.I. Kuindzhi, the artist transferred into his ownership all the paintings he had and cash, as well as the lands belonging to him in Crimea.

One of his students, Nicholas Roerich, characterized the grandiose personality of his teacher: “All of cultural Russia knew Kuindzhi. Even attacks made this name even more significant. They know about Kuindzhi - a great, original artist. They know how, after unprecedented success, he stopped exhibiting; "He worked for himself. They know him as a friend of youth and a mourner for the disadvantaged. They know him as a glorious dreamer in an effort to embrace the great and reconcile everyone, who gave away his entire million-dollar fortune. They know him as a strict critic."

Every great master, introducing the viewer to Beauty, puts certain ideas into his works, creates certain forms in which he dresses these ideas.

What did Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi saturate his canvases with, what do his landscapes “say”?

Looking at the artist’s paintings, even a superficial viewer feels the unusualness of the light depicted in them. “The illusion of light was his god, and there was no artist equal to him in achieving this miracle of painting,” I.E. wrote about Kuindzhi. Repin.

Kuindzhi was extremely popular during his lifetime. Collectors, ready to pay any money for his paintings, literally hunted for them. Repin recalled: “There were those who, on their knees, begged the author to give them some painting or, finally, a sketch of his work. Let the artist take whatever he wants, they are not rich, but they will pay him in installments, how much he charges for his brushstroke, sketch or a sketch..." A special fate was in store for the painting "Moonlit Night on the Dnieper". (You can talk to the children about the first impression the painting made on them, and then begin to analyze the painting.)

2. Kuindzhi A. “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper.” Commentary on the analysis of the picture.

In the summer and autumn of 1880 A.I. Kuindzhi worked on new picture. By Russian capital Rumors spread about the enchanting beauty of “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper”. For two hours on Sundays, the artist opened the doors of his workshop to those who wished.

This picture has gained truly legendary fame.

To the workshop of A.I. Kuindzhi came to I.S. Turgenev and Y. Polonsky, I. Kramskoy and, D.I. Mendeleev. “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” was sold while still smelling of fresh paint, right in the workshop. One Sunday, a naval officer inquired about its price. “Why do you need it? - Kuindzhi shrugged. “You won’t buy it anyway: it’s expensive.” - “But still?” “Yes, five thousand,” said Arkhip Ivanovich, an incredible amount for those times, almost a fantastic amount. And suddenly I heard in response: “Okay. I leave it behind.” And only after the officer left did the artist learn that Grand Duke Constantine had visited him.

He had been working towards this picture for a long time. I went to the Dnieper, perhaps, precisely for this story. For days, weeks, Kuindzhi almost did not leave the workshop. The work was so engrossing that even Vera Leontyevna, like a recluse, brought lunch upstairs. The intended picture, shimmering and alive, stood before the artist’s eyes. I worked on it throughout the fall and winter. In the spring I finished my unusual creation.

The memoirs of Kuindzhi’s wife are interesting: “Kuindzhi woke up at night. A thought like an insight: “What if... “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” was shown in a dark room?!” He jumped up, lit the kerosene lamp and, shuffling with his slippers, ran up the stairs to the workshop. There he lit another lamp and placed them both on the floor at the edges of the picture. The effect was striking: the space in the picture expanded, the moon shone surrounded by a flickering radiance, the Dnieper played with its reflection. Everything is like in life, but more beautiful, more sublime.

Arkhip Ivanovich placed a chair at what he considered to be the right distance, sat down, leaned back and looked and looked until it was dawn outside the huge window. Amazed by the effect he found, he knew that he had to show “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” in a dark hall, alone...”

The painting was exhibited on Bolshaya Morskaya Street in St. Petersburg. 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 was a very modest-sized landscape (105 x 144).

Knowing that the effect moonlight fully manifested under artificial lighting, the artist ordered to drape the windows in the hall and illuminate the picture with a beam of electric light focused on it. Visitors entered the dimly lit hall and, as if enchanted, stood before the cold glow of moonlight. Kuindzhi knew how to win. Long lines lined the street and people waited for hours to see the painting. To avoid crowding, the public was allowed into the hall in groups. Arkhip Ivanovich restored order and established a queue. His non-Russian surname, thick black beard, and eyes glowing with happiness turned him into a mythical magician and sorcerer, dressed in a secular costume.

What was revealed to the audience? What fascinated them? What attracted their attention first? What adjectives can be chosen to describe the landscape? (calm, sad, wide)

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 and the huts. And everything in nature became silent, enchanted by the wonderful radiance of the sky and the Dnieper waters. The world was forgotten in a peaceful sleep. The mighty, full-flowing Dnieper flows mysteriously and shines like fish scales. The clouds are floating, as if the moon is floating with them. The sparkling silver-greenish disk of the moon flooded the earth immersed in the peace of night with its mysterious 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; 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 until A.I. Kuindzhi sang about nature only the great N.V. Gogol: “Wonderful is the Dnieper in calm weather, when it rushes freely and smoothly through forests and mountains full waters its own, neither rustles nor thunders. You look and don’t know whether its majestic width is walking or not.”

Pushkin's lines echo general mood paintings:

Quiet Ukrainian night.
The sky is transparent. The stars are shining.
Overcome your drowsiness
Doesn't want air...
The moon is calm from above
Shines over the White Church...
And quiet, quiet all around...

3. Analysis of the painting “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper”

Let's try to break the picture into scenes or episodes and analyze them.

Why is it interesting? Moonlight? Why does he attract our attention? (You can quote from “The Master and Margarita”) Moonlight is the most amazing thing in this picture. Its extreme naturalness is determined by its multi-layered glaze and the ability to use light and color contrasts.

glaze(transparent).

What is the moon an archetype of? Why is it needed?

archetypes

No houses are visible, only silhouettes are visible. The velvet of the night lies in the sky, blowing out the lights in the houses with dreams.

The moon tries not to disappear in order to save the souls of sleeping people and prevent eternal darkness from entering their hearts.

Can we draw a parallel between the moon and time? (Children's answers may be the most unexpected. Time flows through the clouds and flows like the moon, tying together the human daily cycle. Foreshadowing the end of the night and the beginning of the day.)

4. Commentary on the analysis of the picture

The bright silvery light of the moon is shaded by depth of blue color, and it turns the traditional moon motif into an attractive and mysterious one. There have even been suggestions about some unusual colors and even about the strange artistic techniques that the artist allegedly used. Rumors about the secret of A.I.’s artistic method Kuindzhi, the secret of his colors was talked about even during the artist’s lifetime, some tried to catch him in tricks, even in connection with evil spirits.

He succeeds in combining colors in such a way that in the picture, with the dark tones of the shores and sky, creates a feeling of the glow of the Moon. By moonlight He painted the flooded shore more than once. (You can show early paintings). Now I wrote the Moon! Typically, painters leave it behind the edge of the picture or draped in clouds. Kuindzhi wrote it at the moment when the clouds cleared for a short time.

The unusually effective rendering of moonlight, color contrasts, and compositional decorativeness of Kuindzhi’s paintings broke the old principles of painting. And all this was the result of his intense search. Kuindzhi was keenly interested in the works of professors at St. Petersburg University, physicist F. F. Petrushevsky and chemist D. I. Mendeleev. Petrushevsky studied the technology of painting, the relationship between basic and additional colors. He conveyed all this to the audience of the Academy of Arts. Kuindzhi’s book “Light and Color in themselves and in relation to painting,” published in 1883, aroused particular interest. He himself constantly experimented with paints in his own workshop. Even the term “Kuindzh’s spot” appeared. Artists sought to unravel the secret of his color effects, and the public greeted each new work as a special event.

Repin talked about the lessons that D. Mendeleev gave to artists. In class, Mendeleev talked about physical properties paints One day he demonstrated a device that measured the sensitivity of the eye to subtle nuances tones and invited them to “get checked.” Kuindzhi had no equal!

The public 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. Poet Ya. Polonsky, friend of A.I. Kuindzhi, wrote then: “Positively, I don’t remember standing in front of any painting for so long... What is it? A painting or reality? In a gold frame or in open window Have we seen 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?

Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, who bought the painting, did not want to part with the canvas, even going to trip around the world. I.S. Turgenev, who was in Paris at that time (in January 1881), was horrified by this thought, which he wrote indignantly to the writer D.V. Grigorovich: “There is no doubt that the painting... will return completely destroyed, thanks to the salty fumes of the air, etc.” He even visited the Grand Duke in Paris while his frigate was in the port of Cherbourg, and hoped that he would be able to persuade him to leave the painting on display in the gallery, but he could not 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 were conveyed by the brilliant A.I. Kuindzhi with such power that, looking at the picture even now, viewers immediately fall under the power of the eternal and Divine. (It is advisable to show both versions of the painting, stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Russian Museum. The difference is obvious!).

5. Analysis of fragments of the picture. (It is best to show enlarged fragments of the picture here)

The sky can be perceived as independent picture. It is the main compositional link. It carries moonlight, which connects the earth and sky into a single whole.

A windmill is a typical sign of a Ukrainian village. Human world and the natural world merge in this work in complete image, characterized by philosophical depth and compositional thoughtfulness.

The surface of the river sparkles and sways as if alive - and here Kuidzhiev’s illusionism is evident!

The whitewashed walls of peasant huts mirror the moonlight, and in this interaction the earthly and heavenly are firmly connected.

What organizes the whole picture? What archetype can we talk about here? (rivers)

The movement of the river organizes the picture; its smooth bends expand and deepen the space. Against the backdrop of a river sparkling with moonlight, a windmill dear to Kuindzhi’s heart. A close-up in the shade, in the second there are several whitewashed huts. Treeless hills slope down to the river. Everything is ordinary, non-picturesque according to the concepts of most landscape painters.

Working with the “Painting Composition” scheme (Slide)

How else can you interpret the composition of the painting? What does she look like? (Yes, this is our earthly home!)

The painting “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” can be read in different ways. This picture looks like time. The illuminated part of the river is the present, something we are always sure of. Water flows - the present is constantly moving towards the future. The foreground is the past. It recalls individual details: houses, a mill, gardens. Beyond the river is the future. It is unclear, but not scary. It fascinates and beckons. The moon is a beacon and lights the way there.

Yes, indeed, the solemn color of “Moonlit Night” set the mood for a high style, inspired philosophical thoughts about life, about earthly existence, about the heavenly world, as if calmed down in the slow passage of time.

The artist's plastic novelty lies in achieving the ultimate illusion of light. This effect was achieved thanks to multi-layer glaze painting, light and color contrast. Kuindzhi also used additional colors in this painting. The warm color of the earth sets off the cold, emerald reflection of moonlight on the surface of the Dnieper. The entire image is built on calm parallels, only broken here and there by verticals. The extraordinary balance of the composition imparts a smooth flow to the color, as if bewitching a person in the languid outpouring of his soul.

The mood of the picture, its glaze imposed on us? (This picture creates an amazing, fantastic mood, anticipation of an adventure. This is not dawn or evening, but night, a moonlit night. The mill, the houses - everything is asleep. Everything is calm, only the moonlit path on the river creates a slightly anxious expectation of something . Maybe the dawn of the next day, happiness. Or maybe future failures. But the mood of the picture is not sad).

Are there other visions of the painting?

It seems to me that every time you look at this picture, you see it differently. To a sad person it may seem sad, to a joyful person it may seem joyful. Everyone can see what they want here. Even looking at lunar path, you see it either bright or dark green.

Is the picture alive or not: prove it. (Yes, she is alive, but peaceful.

There is no movement in this picture, but life is felt in everything. It seems that even the river does not flow. There is no wind. This gives the impression of a temporarily sleeping world.)

What did the moon turn the river into?

The stormy river seemed to turn into a baby, lulled by the moon and the cries of night birds; by the way, the picture is full of sounds. Let's try to listen...

The characters in the picture, name them? (moon, river, darkness)

The darkness is fascinating, it seems that you can touch it. It is like a fabric draped over the sky and gently flowing down. The dark shore is covered with it, and if it were not black, it would not be noticeable. (When I look at this sky, it surprises me, I feel silence and relaxation. When I look at this painting by Kuindzhi, I want to enter it, as if in open door and feel all the charm of the night and moonlight).

Moonlit night on the Dnieper" –paraphrase on the theme of his earliernocturnes.

Moonlit Night on the Dnieper" is also a Kuindzhev nocturne, one cannot but agree!

PARAPHRASE, or paraphrase

. (Here it would be appropriate to show slides with earlier paintings by Kuindzhi, which depict moonlight, for example, “Night”, etc.)

The French word “nocturne”, like the Italian “notturno”, literally means night. This term, used in various arts, appeared in music XVIII century. At that time, nocturnes were pieces intended to be performed on outdoors at night time.

6. Conclusion. And Kuindzhi, who is eternal, like moonlight breaking through the thickness of time, will help us draw a conclusion.

He believed that “...An artist should perform at exhibitions while he, like a singer, has a voice. And as soon as the voice subsides, you must leave, not show yourself, so as not to be ridiculed. So I became Arkhip Ivanovich, known to everyone, well, that’s good, and then I saw that I couldn’t do that again, that my voice seemed to begin to subside. Well, they will say: Kuindzhi was there, and Kuindzhi was gone! So, I don’t want this, but for Kuindzhi to remain alone forever.” There is nothing more to add here!

Let's return to the beginning of the lesson to the question that Kuindzhi's student N. Roerich, Kuindzhi's student, asks and answers it himself. “Why are great works of art so valued by people and never die? Because they contain crystals of Light, placed in them by the hands of the creator of this work. The fiery spirit of the artist, sculptor, poet, composer, in the process of his creativity, saturates what he creates with elements of Light. And since the elements of Light are not subject to the usual destruction by time or oblivion, the life span of great works of art goes far beyond the life of ordinary things and objects."

Questions and homework: Write a miniature essay “Me and Kuindzhi’s Moonlit Night”

Lesson vocabulary

Glazing is thin transparent or translucent layers of paints that are applied to dried or semi-dried paint layers in order to change the color, to enhance or weaken it.

Strokes can be opaque (opaque) and glaze(transparent).

(Archetype (Greek) - prototype, origin, sample. Its content consists of universal human prototypes - archetypes(for example, the image of mother earth, a hero, a wise old man, a demon, etc.), the dynamics of which underlie myths and symbolism artistic creativity, dreams, etc.)

Paraphrase, or paraphrase(Greek παράφρασις - retelling), - stylistic term; 1) retell in your own words literary work. This category of paraphrase also includes an abbreviated presentation of large works of art;

2) In music, common in the 19th century. designation of instrumental virtuoso fantasy, mainly for piano, on themes of popular songs, opera arias, etc..

The French word “nocturne”, like the Italian “notturno”, literally means night. This term, used in various arts, appeared in the music of the 18th century. At that time, nocturnes were plays intended to be performed outdoors at night.


A. Kuindzhi. Moonlit night on the Dnieper, 1880.
Photo: art-assorty.ru

“Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” (1880) is one of the most famous paintings Arkhip Kuindzhi. This work created a real sensation and acquired mystical fame. Many did not believe that the light of the moon could be conveyed in this way only artistic means, and looked behind the canvas, looking for a lamp there. Many stood silently for hours in front of the painting, and then left in tears. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich bought “Moonlit Night” for his personal collection and took it with him everywhere, which had tragic consequences.


Famous artist Arkhip Kuindzhi.
Photo: pravkonkurs.ru and abmortitua.xyz

The artist worked on this painting in the summer and autumn of 1880. Even before the exhibition began, rumors spread that Kuindzhi was preparing something completely incredible. There were so many curious people that on Sundays the painter opened the doors of his studio and let everyone in. Even before the exhibition began, the painting was bought by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich.

V. Vasnetsov. Portrait of A. I. Kuindzhi, 1869. Fragment.
Photo: artcontext.info

Kuindzhi was always very zealous about exhibiting his paintings, but this time he outdid himself. It was a personal exhibition, and only one work was shown - “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper”. The artist ordered to drape all the windows and illuminate the canvas with a beam of electric light directed at it - in daylight the moonlight did not look so impressive. Visitors entered the dark hall and, as if under hypnosis, froze in front of this magical picture.

I. Kramskoy. Portraits of A.I. Kuindzhi from 1872 to the 1870s.
Photo: artcontext.info and tanais.info

There was a queue for days in front of the hall of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists in St. Petersburg, where the exhibition took place. The public had to be allowed into the room in groups to avoid crowding. The incredible effect of the painting was legendary. The shine of the moonlight was so fantastic that the artist was suspected of using some unusual mother-of-pearl paints brought from Japan or China, and was even accused of having connections with evil spirits. And skeptical viewers tried to find reverse side canvas hidden lamps.

I. Repin. Portrait of the artist A.I. Kuindzhi, 1877. Fragment |
Photo: artscroll.ru

Of course, the whole secret was in the extraordinary artistic skill Kuindzhi, in the skillful construction of the composition and such a combination of colors that created the effect of radiance and caused the illusion of flickering light. The warm reddish earth tone contrasted with the cool silver tones, thereby deepening the space. However, even the professionals could not explain the magical impression that the painting made on the audience with skill alone - many left the exhibition in tears.

Famous artist Arkhip Kuindzhi, 1907.
Photo: newconcepts.club

I. Repin said that the audience froze in front of the painting “in prayerful silence”: “This is how the artist’s poetic charms acted on selected believers, and they lived in such moments with the best feelings of the soul and enjoyed the heavenly bliss of the art of painting.” The poet Ya. Polonsky was surprised: “I honestly don’t remember standing in front of any painting for so long... What is this? Picture or reality? And the poet K. Fofanov, impressed by this painting, wrote the poem “Night on the Dnieper,” which was later set to music.

The colors have darkened over time.
Photo: rubooks.org

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.”

The colors have darkened over time.
Photo: art-assorty.ru

Unfortunately, our contemporaries cannot fully appreciate the original effect of the painting, since it has survived to our times in a distorted form. And it's all to blame - special treatment to the canvas of its owner, Grand Duke Constantine. He was so attached to this painting that he took it with him on a trip around the world. Having learned about this, I. Turgenev was horrified: “There is no doubt that the painting will return completely destroyed, thanks to the salty fumes of the air.” He even tried to persuade the prince to leave the painting for a while in Paris, but he was adamant.

Kuindzhi’s painting also inspires modern photographers.
Photo: flickr.com

Unfortunately, the writer turned out to be right: the salt-saturated sea air and high humidity had a detrimental effect on the composition of the paints, and they began to darken. Therefore, now “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” looks completely different. Although the moonlight still has a magical effect on viewers today, the landscape philosophy of the famous artist arouses constant interest.

In 1880, one opened in St. Petersburg extraordinary exhibition. There was a huge line of people waiting to get into the exhibition hall outside the building on Bolshaya Morskaya Street. After waiting outside for several hours, visitors went inside to look at one single picture.

It was a landscape of the Russian artist-Itinerant. Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi entitled "". The canvas is quite small in size, and the sky, moon and river are painted on it. It would seem nothing special... However, the audience was amazed. In the dimly lit hall, it seemed to them that they had somehow magically been transported from the gray St. Petersburg morning into the moonlit Ukrainian night.

They saw a wide plain along which the Dnieper slowly carries its waters, and in the heights of the cloud-covered sky, through a small hole the moon shines, illuminating the river and its bank with a mysterious silvery light. Admiring this beautiful landscape, visitors to the exhibition recalled the words of the great N.V. Gogol who sang beauty Ukrainian night.

Singer of Light

In his own way he sang the poetry of this night and Kuindzhi, after all, it was not for nothing that he was called “the singer of open spaces and light.” He, like no one else, knew how to create amazing illusion Sveta.

This silvery-green light in the painting was so bright and visible that many viewers tried to find some kind of catch, trying to understand how the artist managed to achieve such an effect. It was rumored that the picture was painted not with strokes of oil on canvas, but with some mysterious lunar paints on glass and illuminated by a lamp from the back side. Curious people looked behind the picture and did not find any lamp, and the moon continued to shine with a mysterious witch's light.

Of course, well-chosen lighting of the hall played its role. The picture looked especially advantageous with artificial lighting and drawn curtains. And paints Kuindzhi, indeed, were not quite ordinary and typical. The artist devoted a lot of time to serious study of the properties of paints, spending many hours in the university laboratory, even using special instruments to achieve the shades and effects he needed.

The process of creating a picture was long for him - Kuindzhi I spent a long time selecting paints, thought about each brush stroke for a long time, peering intently at the work being created.

Colors or feelings?

But still, the main thing in his canvas is not special colors, but the ability to convey with their help all the splendor of nature, its mood. He was able to convey the space, silence and poetry of a warm Ukrainian night. And that is why people stood at the painting for a long time, unable to take their eyes off it. Many even left the hall with tears in their eyes, such strong impression the effect this work had on them Kuindzhi.

The audience was delighted. The entire press wrote about this exhibition at the time; reproductions of the painting were sold in huge quantities throughout the country. Poet inspired by this work K. Fofanov created the poem “Night on the Dnieper,” which was later set to music.

The painting itself was bought for enormous money by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, who valued it so much that he did not want to part with the masterpiece, even going to cruise. Unfortunately, the sea air had a detrimental effect on the canvas, and the colors darkened somewhat, but the moonlight did not dim, so even now people never tire of admiring it outstanding work art.

Give me the beauty of this world...

Kuindzhi developed and masterfully applied his own hitherto unprecedented system of decorative plastics, came up with unusual visual techniques with lighting effects, intense tones and sharp compositional angles.

But main secret paintings by Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi in that he knew how to convey and convey to the audience in his works feelings. And if in another it famous landscape (« Birch Grove") the main thing is joy, which is literally spilled in the air, here it is peace, harmony, and admiration for the extraordinary beauty of nature.

In his paintings, the painter created his ideal world, where life and the space around us is perceived as a blessing, bringing goodness, beauty and joy to people.

I.E. Repin wrote that A. Kuindzhi“brought back rapture to the landscape sense of beauty and the extraordinary things of the world."

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“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 house in St. Petersburg, in which Kuindzhi’s apartment is located, is often called the “House of Artists”, since here in different time Many Russian painters lived there: A. Beggrov, E. Volkov, M. Klodt, I. Kramskoy, the Chernetsov brothers.

The work was exhibited in separate room 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.

Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich

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, rare person could remain indifferent in front of 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, which the artist allegedly used. Rumors of a secret artistic method A.I. Kuindzhi, the secret of his colors was talked about 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 focused his efforts on the illusory transmission of the real the effect of lighting, in search of 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 claimed the use chemical compositions based on phosphorus. However, this is not entirely true. The unusual color structure of the canvas plays a decisive role in creating an impression. Applying in a painting additional colors, reinforcing 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.





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 a short time in Paris.

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.

Plot

Before us is a landscape. The artist chose a point of view from afar and from above, leaving most canvas for the sky. The shining moon colors the contours of the clouds in cold tones. The light fluctuates dark waters a river which, as Kramskoy notes, “flows majestically.”

"Moonlit night on the Dnieper." (wikipedia.org)

As in most of his other works, Kuindzhi wanted to convey natural phenomena that were not amenable to lengthy painting from life. The artist had a unique vision - he remembered tones, due to which he captured for centuries those moments that in nature last minutes.


"After the Rain", 1879. (wikipedia.org)

“The illusion of light was his god, and there was no artist equal to him in achieving this miracle of painting,” his friend and mentor Ilya Repin wrote about Kuindzhi.

Context

Especially for Moonlit Night on the Dnieper, Kuindzhi organized an exhibition of one painting - the first of its kind in Russia. Even before her, rumors circulated around St. Petersburg about an unprecedentedly beautiful painting that Kuindzhi was painting. Those wishing to see the canvas gathered under the artist’s windows. Every Sunday he allowed all curious people into the workshop for two hours.

For greater effect, the windows in the hall were curtained, a ray of light fell only on the canvas. When visitors entered the dimly lit hall, they could not believe their eyes - greenish moonlight flooded the entire room.


"Sea. Crimea", 1890s. (wikipedia.org)

People did not understand why such an unusual light emanated from the painting. It seemed that such an effect could not be created only with the help of oil. Some even tried to look behind the picture to see if there was a lamp there. What kind of rumors were circulating around St. Petersburg! That Kuindzhi paints with “magic lunar” colors from Japan. Someone even remembered the unclean one. There was such a fuss that the artist decided to go into seclusion for 20 years.

In fact, the secret was simple - many years of work. Kuindzhi was a passionate experimenter. He mixed not only paints, but also added to them chemical elements. This could not have happened without the hand of the chemist of all Rus', Dmitry Mendeleev.

The painting was bought by Grand Duke Constantine. He was so fascinated by the painting that he even took it with him on a trip around the world.

The fate of the artist

Kuindzhi was born into the family of a poor shoemaker. Little Arkhip, who lost his parents early, studied very poorly. He liked drawing more, so everything that seemed suitable for this was covered with drawings.

The boy lived in great poverty, so early childhood He got a job - herding geese, keeping records of bricks at a construction site, helping in a bakery. One day he was advised to go to Crimea to see Ivan Aivazovsky and learn to draw. Imagine his disappointment when Aivazovsky only allowed him to grind paint and paint the fence.


Arkhip Kuindzhi. Portrait by V. M. Vasnetsov, 1869. (wikipedia.org)

For the next almost 10 years, Kuindzhi retouched photographs, until one day he decided to take an exam in St. Petersburg Academy arts It only worked the third time. At the academy, Arkhip met the Itinerants, under whose influence he wrote his first successful, in the opinion of academicians, canvases.

Fame came to him with " Moonlit night on the Dnieper." After exhibiting several more paintings after it, Kuindzhi unexpectedly went into seclusion. “...An artist needs to perform at exhibitions while he, like a singer, has a voice. And as soon as the voice subsides, you have to leave, not show yourself, so as not to be ridiculed,” said Kuindzhi.

For the next 20 years he wrote, but did not show his work to anyone. Kuindzhi emerged from seclusion in 1901. In November of the same year, the last public exhibition of the painter’s works was organized, after which no one saw new paintings until his death in 1910. Kuindzhi donated everything he had to the Society of Artists, which he organized shortly before his death.



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