Plot
Before us is a landscape. The artist chose a point of view from afar and from above, leaving most of the canvas for the sky. The shining moon colors the contours of the clouds in cold tones. The light fluctuates on the dark waters of the river, which, as Kramskoy notes, “carries out its majestic course.”
« Moonlight night on the Dnieper." (wikipedia.org)
As in most of his other works, Kuindzhi wanted to convey natural phenomena that were not amenable to lengthy painting from life. The artist had a unique vision - he remembered tones, due to which he captured for centuries those moments that in nature last minutes.
"After the Rain", 1879. (wikipedia.org)
“The illusion of light was his god, and there was no artist equal to him in achieving this miracle of painting,” his friend and mentor Ilya Repin wrote about Kuindzhi.
Context
Especially for Moonlit Night on the Dnieper, Kuindzhi organized an exhibition of one painting - the first of its kind in Russia. Even before her, rumors circulated around St. Petersburg about the unprecedented beauty of the painting that Kuindzhi was painting. Those wishing to see the canvas gathered under the artist’s windows. Every Sunday he allowed all curious people into the workshop for two hours.
For greater effect, the windows in the hall were curtained, a ray of light fell only on the canvas. When visitors entered the dimly lit hall, they could not believe their eyes - greenish moonlight flooded the entire room.
"Sea. Crimea", 1890s. (wikipedia.org)
People did not understand why such an unusual light emanated from the painting. It seemed that such an effect could not be created only with the help of oil. Some even tried to look behind the picture to see if there was a lamp there. What kind of rumors were circulating around St. Petersburg! That Kuindzhi paints with “magic lunar” colors from Japan. Someone even remembered the unclean one. There was such a fuss that the artist decided to go into seclusion for 20 years.
In fact, the secret was simple - long years work. Kuindzhi was a passionate experimenter. He mixed not only paints, but also added to them chemical elements. This could not have happened without the hand of the chemist of all Rus', Dmitry Mendeleev.
I bought the painting Grand Duke Konstantin. He was so fascinated by the canvas that he even took it with him to 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, therefore with 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 paints and paint the fence.
Arkhip Kuindzhi. Portrait by V. M. Vasnetsov, 1869. (wikipedia.org)
For the next almost 10 years, Kuindzhi retouched photographs, until one day he decided to take the exam for the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. It only worked the third time. At the academy, Arkhip met the Itinerants, under whose influence he wrote his first successful, in the opinion of academicians, canvases.
Fame came to him with " Moonlit night on the Dnieper." After exhibiting several more paintings after it, Kuindzhi unexpectedly went into seclusion. “...An artist needs to perform at exhibitions while he, like a singer, has a voice. And as soon as the voice subsides, you have to leave, not show yourself, so as not to be ridiculed,” said Kuindzhi.
For the next 20 years he wrote, but did not show his work to anyone. Kuindzhi emerged from seclusion in 1901. In November of the same year, the last public exhibition of the painter’s works was organized, after which no one saw new paintings until his death in 1910. Kuindzhi donated everything he had to the Society of Artists, which he organized shortly before his death.
"Moonlit Night on the Dnieper"(1880) – one of the most famous paintings Arkhip Kuindzhi. This work created a real sensation and acquired mystical fame. Many did not believe that the light of the moon could be conveyed in this way only artistic means, and looked behind the canvas, looking for a lamp there. Many stood silently for hours in front of the painting, and then left in tears. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich bought “Moonlit Night” for his personal collection and took it with him everywhere, which had tragic consequences.
The artist worked on this painting in the summer and autumn of 1880. Even before the exhibition began, rumors spread that Kuindzhi was preparing something completely incredible. There were so many curious people that on Sundays the painter opened the doors of his studio and let everyone in. Even before the exhibition began, the painting was bought by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich.
Kuindzhi was always very zealous about exhibiting his paintings, but this time he outdid himself. It was 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.
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. Shine 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 hidden lamps on the back of the canvas.
Of course, the whole secret lay in Kuindzhi’s extraordinary artistic skill, in the skillful construction of the composition and in such a combination of colors that created the effect of radiance and caused the illusion of flickering light. The warm reddish earth tone contrasted with the cool silver tones, thereby deepening the space. However, even the professionals could not explain the magical impression that the painting made on the audience with skill alone - many left the exhibition in tears.
I. Repin said that the audience froze in front of the painting “in prayerful silence”: “This is how the artist’s poetic charms acted on selected believers, and they lived in such moments with the best feelings of the soul and enjoyed the heavenly bliss of the art of painting.” The poet Ya. Polonsky was surprised: “I honestly don’t remember standing in front of any painting for so long... What is this? Picture or reality? And the poet K. Fofanov, impressed by this painting, wrote the poem “Night on the Dnieper,” which was later set to music.
I. Kramskoy foresaw the fate of the canvas: “Perhaps Kuindzhi combined together such colors that are in natural antagonism with each other and after a certain time will either go out, or change and decompose to the point that descendants will shrug their shoulders in bewilderment: why did they come to the delight of the good-natured spectators? 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. 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 in Paris for a while, but he was adamant.
Unfortunately, the writer turned out to be right: the salt-saturated sea air and high humidity had a detrimental effect on the composition of the paints, and they began to darken. Therefore, now “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” looks completely different. Although the moonlight still has a magical effect on viewers today, it still arouses constant interest.
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 new picture. 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 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.
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 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, 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 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 depth of blue color. 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 have even been suggestions about some unusual colors and even about strange ones 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 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 beat 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. Decisive role The unusual color structure of the canvas plays a 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 gold frame or 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? 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 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.
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 other is in the Livadia Palace in Yalta and the third in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
sources
The moonlit night on the Dnieper Kuindzhi created a real sensation and almost immediately acquired mystical fame. Many did not believe that the light of the moon could be conveyed in this way only through artistic means.
In the summer and autumn of 1880, Arkhip Kuindzhi worked on a new painting. By that time, he had already severed his relationship with the Partnership of Itinerants, considering it too commercialized. Rumors that the artist was creating something enchanting spread throughout the Russian capital instantly. On Sundays he opened the workshop for two hours and those who wished could get acquainted with the work even before its completion. So the picture gained truly legendary fame. Writer Ivan Turgenev, artists Yakov Polonsky, Ilya Kramskoy and Pavel Chistyakov, and scientist Dmitry Mendelev came to Arkhip Ivanovich’s studio. The famous publisher and collector Kozma Soldatenkov had an eye on the painting. However, Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich was ahead of everyone. He bought “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” even before its presentation to the general public for five thousand rubles.
The painting was shown in St. Petersburg, and it was the first exhibition of one painting in Russia. Arkhip Kuindzhi has always been very attentive to the exhibition of his works. I placed them so that each was well lit and was not disturbed by neighboring canvases. In a separate room of the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” hung alone on the wall. The room was not illuminated, but a bright electric beam fell on the picture. This deepened the image even more, and the moonlight became simply dazzling.
Visitors entered the dimly lit hall and 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. The silvery-greenish disk of the moon flooded the earth with a mysterious light. There are no people on the canvas, and the main thing in the image is not the river or the moon itself, although none of the painters did it better than Kuindzhi. The main thing is light, giving peace and hope. This phosphorescent light was so strong that some of the spectators tried to look behind the painting to find a lantern or lamp. The curious were in for a strong disappointment - there was, of course, no lamp there.
Only Gogol sang about the Dnieper like that
This majestic spectacle still immerses viewers in thoughts about eternity and the enduring beauty of the world. So I only sang about the Dnieper before Kuindzhi the great Gogol. The number of sincere admirers of the artist’s talent grew. There were no indifferent people among the spectators, and some even considered the picture to be witchcraft.
Decades later, witnesses to that triumph continued to recall the shock experienced by the audience who “got” the picture. This word perfectly suits the description of the exhibition. According to contemporaries, Bolshaya Morskaya, where the exhibition took place, was so densely packed with carriages that one had to wait for hours to see this extraordinary work. To avoid crowding, the public was allowed into the hall in groups.
Nicholas Roerich still found Maxim's servant alive, who received a ruble each (at that time the sum was simply huge - author) from those who tried to get to the painting out of turn. The artist’s performance with a personal exhibition, even consisting of only one small painting, became an unusual event. The success exceeded all expectations and turned into a real sensation.
There were rumors that Kuindzhi painted with “magic lunar” paints from Japan. Envious people said with contempt that drawing with them did not require great intelligence. The superstitious accused the master of being in cahoots with evil spirits.
The secret of the “artist of light” was his fantastic ability to play with contrasts and long experiments on color rendering. In the process of creating a painting, he mixed not only paints, but also added chemical elements to them. Kuindzhi was helped in this by his close friend Dmitry Mendeleev. Unfortunately, due to the careless mixing of chemically incompatible paints, the canvas became very dark.
The decisive role in creating the impression of the use of phosphorus was played by the unusual coloristic structure of the canvas. By using additional colors in the painting that enhance each other, the artist managed to achieve the incredible effect of the illusion of lunar color. For example, he contrasted the warm reddish tone of the earth with cold silvery shades and thereby deepened the space. Small dark strokes in illuminated areas created a feeling of vibrating light.
People left with tears in their eyes
People, according to Ilya Repin, stood in “prayerful silence” in front of Kuindzhi’s canvas and left the hall with tears in their eyes. “This is how the poetic spell of the artist 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,” wrote the great artist.
Newspapers and magazines responded to the exhibition with enthusiastic articles. Reproductions of “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” were sold in thousands of copies throughout Russia. The poet Yakov Polonsky wrote: “I honestly don’t remember standing in front of any painting for so long... What is it? 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? » And the poet Konstantin Fofanov, impressed by the painting, wrote the poem “Night on the Dnieper,” which was later set to music.
Ilya 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 initial effect of the painting. It has reached our times in a distorted form. And the reason for everything is the special attitude towards the canvas of its owner, Grand Duke Constantine, who, because of his great love, did not want to part with it and took it with him everywhere. The painting even traveled around the world, which could not but have a negative impact on its preservation.
It is worth saying that due to the enormous popularity of the painting, Kuindzhi created two copies of Moonlit Night on the Dnieper. One of them is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery, the other in the Livadia Palace in Yalta. The original is in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
“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 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.
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 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 beat 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.
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.