Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi ( ; ; – ) was a Russian

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Date of birth

Kuindzhi's exact date of birth is not known. Although it was believed that he was born in 1842, the latest discoveries in archives suggest that he was born in 1841. Kuindzhi himself, when asked by St. Petersburg Academy of Arts to clarify his date of birth, "clearly wrote 1841, then, with doubt, January, and then several times crossed out the month". The researchers believe he was born somewhere between January and March 1841. The commonly recognized date is January 27, although Kuindzhi celebrated his

name day In Christianity, a name day is a tradition in many countries of Europe and the Americas, as well as Christian communities elsewhere. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's baptismal name, which is normatively t ...

on February 19 O.S. (March 4 N.S.), on the feast of Archippus.

Biography

Arkhip Kuindzhi was born in Mariupol uezd (one of the subdivisions of the

Yekaterinoslav Governorate Yekaterinoslav Governorate} was an administrative-territorial unit (''guberniya'') of the Russian Empire, with its capital in Yekaterinoslav. Covering an area of , and being composed of a inhabitant of 2,113,674 by the census of 1897, it bordere ...

of the Russian Empire) but spent his youth in the city of

Taganrog Taganrog (, ) is a port city in Rostov Oblast, Russia, on the north shore of Taganrog Bay in the Sea of Azov, several kilometers west of the mouth of the Don (river), Don River. It is in the Black Sea region. Population: Located at the site of a ...

. His Christian name is a Russian rendering of the Greek, Ἄρχιππος, (Archippos, from ἄρχος (archos) "master" and ἱππος (hippos) "

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

": "master of horses"; cf. Colossians 4:17, Philemon 1:2) and his surname came from his grandfather's vocational nickname meaning '

goldsmith A goldsmith is a Metalworking, metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Modern goldsmiths mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, they have also made cutlery, silverware, platter (dishware), plat ...

' in Crimean Tatar ( Urum) (). He grew up in a poor family; his father was a

Pontic Greek Pontic Greek (, ; or ''Romeika'') is a variety of Modern Greek indigenous to the Pontus region on the southern shores of the Black Sea, northeastern Anatolia, and the Eastern Turkish and Caucasus region. An endangered Greek language variety ...

shoemaker Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or '' cordwainers'' (sometimes misidentified as cobblers, who repair shoes rather than make them). In the 18th cen ...

, Ivan Khristoforovich Kuindzhi (elsewhere Emendzhi). Arkhip was six years old when he lost his parents, so he was forced to make a living working at a church building site, grazing domestic animals, and working at a corn merchant's shop. He received the rudiments of an education from a Greek friend of the family who was a teacher and then went to the local school. In 1855, at age 13–14, Kuindzhi visited

Feodosia Feodosia (, ''Feodosiia, Teodosiia''; , ''Feodosiya''), also called in English Theodosia (from ), is a city on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea. Feodosia serves as the administrative center of Feodosia Municipality, one of the regions into ...

to study art under Ivan Aivazovsky; however, he was engaged merely with mixing paints, and instead studied with Adolf Fessler, Aivazovsky's student. A 1903 encyclopedic article stated: "Although Kuindzhi cannot be called a student of Aivazovsky, the latter had without doubt some influence on him in the first period of his activity; he borrowed much from him in his manner of painting". English art historian John E. Bowlt wrote that "the elemental sense of light and form associated with Aivazovsky's sunsets, storms, and surging oceans permanently influenced the young Kuindzhi." During the five years from 1860 to 1865, Arkhip Kuindzhi worked as a retoucher in the photography studio of Simeon Isakovich in

. He tried to open his own photography studio, but without success. After that, Kuindzhi left

for

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. He studied painting mainly independently and at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (from 1868; a full member since 1893). He was co-partner of travelling art exhibitions (

Peredvizhniki Peredvizhniki (, ), often called The Wanderers or The Itinerants in English, were a group of Russian realism (arts), realist artists who formed an artists' cooperative in protest of academic restrictions; it evolved into the ''Society for Trave ...

), a group of realist artists in Russia who, in protest to academic restrictions, formed an artists' cooperative which evolved into the Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions (

) in 1870. Arkhip Kuindzhi2

In 1872, the artist left the academy and worked as a freelancer. The painting ''On the

Valaam Valaam (; ) is an archipelago in the northern portion of Lake Ladoga, lying within the Republic of Karelia, Russia. The total area of its more than 50 islands is 36 km2. The largest island is also called Valaam. Other named islands are: Ski ...

Island'' was the first artwork which Pavel Tretyakov acquired for his art gallery. In 1873, Kuindzhi exhibited his painting ''The Snow'' which received the bronze medal at the International Art Exhibition in London in 1874. In the middle of the 1870s, he created a number of paintings in which the

motif was designed for concrete social associations in the spirit of

(''Forgotten Village'', 1874; ''Chumatski Path'', 1875; both – in the

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world. The gallery's history starts in 1856 when the Muscovite merchant Pavel ...

). In his mature period Kuindzhy aspired to capture the most expressive illuminative aspect of the natural condition. He applied composite receptions (high horizon, etc.), creating panoramic views. Using light effects and intense colors shown in main tones, he depicted the illusion of illumination (''Evening in Ukraine'', 1876; '' A Birch Grove'', 1879; ''After a Thunderstorm'', 1879; all three are in the Tretyakov Gallery; '' Moonlit Night on the Dnieper'', 1880 in the

Russian Museum The State Russian Museum (), formerly known as the Russian Museum of His Imperial Majesty Alexander III (), on Arts Square in Saint Petersburg, is the world's largest depository of Russian fine art. It is also one of the largest art museums in ...

, St. Petersburg). His later works are remarkable for their decorative effects of color building. Kuindzhi also developed a close friendship with the chemist

Dmitri Mendeleev Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev ( ; ) was a Russian chemist known for formulating the periodic law and creating a version of the periodic table of elements. He used the periodic law not only to correct the then-accepted properties of some known ele ...

, who taught at Saint Petersburg University. Kuindzhi attended his classes as an auditor or student. Kuindzhi frequently visited Mendeleev and his wife's weekly gatherings, and he developed a life-long interest in the study of light, color, and perception. Kuindzhi lectured at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (Professor since 1892; professor-head of landscape workshop since 1894; but was fired in 1897 for support of students' protests). Among his students were artists such as Arkady Rylov, Nicholas Roerich, Konstantin Bogaevsky, and others. Kuindzhi initiated the creation of the Society of Artists in 1909, later the Society was named after him.

Theft of works

In January 2019, his work ''Ai-Petri. Crimea'' was stolen from Moscow's

, but was found and safely recovered the next day. The man who stole the painting was sentenced to three years in prison. On 21 March 2022, during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the Kuindzhi Art Museum was damaged in a Russian airstrike during the siege of Mariupol. Although three original paintings by Kuindzhi that had been held in the collection—a sketch for ''Red Sunset'', and two preparatory works, ''Elbrus'' and ''Autumn''—had been placen in the museum's basement prior to the bombing and were not damaged, they were then taken by Russia as part of its looting campaign.

Gallery

File:Archip Iwanowitsch Kuindshi 008.jpg, ''

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

'' (1873) File:Archip Iwanowitsch Kuindshi 007.jpg, '' Evening in Ukraine'' (1878-1901) File:Archip Iwanowitsch Kuindshi 005.jpg, '' A Birch Grove'' (1879) File:Archip Iwanowitsch Kuindshi 001.jpg, ''

Dnieper The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

in the Morning'' (1881) File:Arkhip Kuindzhi - Ночь на Днепре - Google Art Project.jpg, '' Moonlit Night on the Dnieper'' (1880) File:Archip Iwanowitsch Kuindshi 004.jpg, ''Surf and Clouds'' (1882) File:Куинджи - Море. Крым..jpg, '' Sea. Crimea'' (1898–1908) File:Archip Iwanowitsch Kuindshi 002.jpg, ''

Elbrus Mount Elbrus; ; is the highest mountain in Russia and Europe. It is a dormant volcano, dormant stratovolcano rising above sea level, and is the highest volcano in Eurasia, as well as the List of mountain peaks by prominence, tenth-most promi ...

'' (1890–1895) File:Archip Iwanowitsch Kuindshi 009.jpg, ''

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

'' (1900-1905) File:Archip Iwanowitsch Kuindshi 003.jpg, ''Moonspots in the Forest, Winter'' (1898–1908) File:00Kuindzhi NochnoeGRM1.jpg, ''Night'' (1905-1908) File:Куинджи - Березовая роща 1901.jpg, '' Birch Grove'' (1901) File:WLA metmuseum Red Sunset on the Dnieper Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi.jpg, '' Red Sunset on the Dnieper'' (1905)

References

*V.S. Manin ''Arkhip Ivanovich Kuinji'', Leningrad, 1990,

External links