Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi is a famous Russian landscape painter, author of such famous works as "Moonlit Night on the Dnieper", "Birch Grove", "Night" and others. His paintings are easily recognizable by their original decorative style, bright colors, and enhanced transmission of natural light effects.
Childhood and youth
Kuindzhi was born in 1842 in Mariupol. The boy lost his parents early and was raised by his paternal uncle and aunt. The family lived very poorly, Arkhip was forced to take a job from early childhood. Nevertheless, he managed to get his primary education. He did not study very willingly, but even then he began to show an extraordinary love for drawing. For lack of materials, the boy left drawings on the walls, fences and scraps of paper.
At the age of 13, on the advice of his employer, the grain merchant Amoretti, he decided to go to Feodosia, where at that time Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky lived and worked. But attempts to enroll in his apprenticeship ended in failure: the great Russian artist did not recognize the talent of the young man. For two years Arkhip served as Aivazovsky's apprentice, rubbing paints and carrying out household errands, but he never received a single painting lesson.
Creative way
Subsequent years Arkhip Kuindzhi worked as a retoucher in Mariupol, Odessa and Taganrog. Only in 1868 he was able to fulfill his dream: after several unsuccessful attempts, he managed to become a volunteer at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. At this time he met I. Kramskoy, I. Repin and other famous artists. Influenced by the ideas of the Itinerants, Kuindzhi tries to emphasize a realistic reflection of the surrounding world. He paints pictures "On the island of Valaam", "Forgotten village", "Autumn thaw," "Lake Ladoga", and others. The works are dominated by muted grayish shades, however, through the play of light, the effect of haze and the twilight sky, nature is shown in a romantic, mysterious way.
In 1875, Kuindzhi married Vera Leontyevna Ketcherdzhi-Shapovalova, the daughter of a Mariupol merchant, whom he fell in love with in his youth. After the wedding, the husband and wife went to the island of Valaam, where the artist continued to work on new paintings - "The Steppes" and "Ukrainian Night". In these works, the artist departs from itinerant ideas, with which, perhaps, he never fully agreed. Now his painting is dominated by the desire to reflect the world around him without critical assessment, directly and joyfully, as a child would do - admiring color and light, without dwelling on details, in a simple, almost applicative manner.
During these years, the artist painted pictures "Birch Grove", "After the Rain", "North" and others. All these works were successful: Kuindzhi amazed his contemporaries with originality and innovation, unprecedented ideas for the transfer of space and light-air environment. The work "Moonlit Night on the Dnieper" had the greatest success. A bold experimenter, when creating this painting, Kuindzhi used bitumen - a dark material that can reflect light. The painting was displayed in a room with darkened windows, and an electric light was directed at it from above. Thanks to these techniques, the painting was an extraordinary success: when viewed, the audience was amazed by the effect of light, which seemed to come from the moon depicted in the painting.
Seclusion
In 1881, an exhibition of two works by Kuindzhi took place, after which the master went into seclusion for many years. For about 20 years, he did not appear in public and did not acquaint anyone, even students, with the results of his creative activity. The motives that prompted the artist to do this are still unknown. According to some assumptions, the reason was his immunity to criticism, because not all of his works were a resounding success - some were met coolly and skeptically. In addition, some critics considered the desire for a showy presentation to be a cheap move, a game to the audience.
During these years, the artist visited the Crimea and the Caucasus, painted many paintings, was engaged in charity work and teaching. Among his students were many artists who were later famous, in particular N. K. Roerich.
The artist's last two exhibitions took place in 1901. As before, the paintings were successful, but the artist left the public again, ceasing his exhibition activities. Arkhip Kuindzhi died in 1910 in St. Petersburg.
