Description of the picture:
Night – Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi. 1905-1908. Canvas, oil. 107×169 cm
At the end of the outgoing 19th century, Arkhip Kuindzhi, tired of empty rumors and his booming glory, decided to withdraw from secular and exhibition life. The painter himself wished to leave the stage in the very final chord, and he succeeded – the artist’s paintings were popular, they were admired by both compatriots and the western public.
Of course, after the artist voluntarily imprisoned himself in the workshop, “evil tongues” and envious people spoke a lot about the fact that the master wrote, began to repeat his own plots, and, in general, exhausted himself and his creative abilities. However, the works that appeared in the workshop during the “mysterious silence” of Arkhip Kuindzhi proved the obvious to everyone – the painter worked a lot, experimented with paints, looked for new soil bases, tried various pigments, invented plots and embodied them in various performing techniques.
One of the most remarkable and attractive works of the artist’s retreat time is the painting “Night”, painted between one thousand nine hundred five and 1908. This is one of the last masterpieces of the master of the Russian poetic landscape.
Before us is a wide panorama – a dark hill and a brilliant river are surrounded by endless expanses of plains. At the top of the hill are silhouettes of two horses. They are the compositional center of the picture. Attentive theorists will immediately note that the figures of animals are located in the picture in full accordance with the rules of classical composition. We also notice other horses grazing on the plain. And teenage shepherds sleeping on the ground, depicted in a somewhat simplistic, separate spots.
Kuindzhi gave most of the canvas to the sky – a frequent cross-cutting hero of his work. And as always, the sky here is extremely beautiful, moving and full. A thin, sharp moon barely highlights the clouds floating above it, but it plays so brightly in the calm waters of the river. Towards the horizon, the sky is becoming lighter, indicating that soon a new day will begin to take up the night elegiac landscape.
The color scheme is very calm and adjusted – smooth transitions, mid-tone overflows give the realistic plot lyricism and a light-sad mood. It is at the same time bright and sad, even some kind of nagging, akin to a warm recollection of the days of the past, but so happy.
In every movement of Kuindzhi’s brush, one feels genuine admiration for nature, an all-consuming desire to sing this real sacred beauty, majesty and solemnity in any of its manifestations. Perhaps none of the landscape painters could so spiritualize the familiar and simple, at first glance, plot.
The viewer may notice a certain decorativeness, a simplification of the image of horses, and this will be a fair remark. It is because of this that the painting “Night” is considered unfinished, which does not detract from the dignity of this work.
Many critics in their critical articles recognize the picture presented as farewell. This is the testament of an aging Arkhip Kuindzhi. And the last word of the master was quiet and bright, full of love for his subjects and for the work to which he, a man from the poor, gave all of himself and his life … without a trace."