Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi. "Birch Grove"

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Please note that the conditions for discounted admission to temporary exhibitions may vary. Check the exhibition pages for more information.

Birch Grove - Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi. 1879. Oil on canvas. 97x181 cm

The painting was created specifically for the 7th exhibition of the Traveling Art Society, and immediately aroused the surprise of the public and spectators - the color scheme of the canvas was so unusual for everyone.

Although many people liked the joyful, bright mood of the work, it was this picture that was the impulse that separated the artist from. Soon after the exhibition, an anonymous article appeared in the newspaper “Molva” under the pseudonym “Lubitel”, which accused Kuindzhi of bad taste - the author allegedly “over-greened” his paintings. The article also raised doubts about Kuindzhi’s talent in principle, and also said that lighting effects are not the result of filigree mastery of technology, but the use of lighting devices that are hidden behind the paintings. The name of the mysterious “Lover” was very soon revealed; it turned out to be Kuindzhi’s colleague, a member of the traveling society M. Klodt.

Kuindzhi demanded that the offender be excluded from the Wanderers, however, no one responded to this request, and Arkhip Ivanovich left on his own. However, biographers agree that the conflict between Kuindzhi and Klodt was just an excuse - the painter long ago stepped over the socially accusatory boundaries of art promoted by society, and “Birch Grove” is a clear confirmation of this.

Having conceived a plot that a great many Russian artists (,) used in their work, the master searched for a long time for the ideal composition - this is evidenced by the surviving sketches and sketches. From these artifacts one can trace how the author chose the height of the trees, the area of ​​the clearing, and thought about how much space to give to the forest. That is, there is nothing spontaneous in this picture, it is the fruit of a verified artistic thought and is in no way a plein air work.

What is the decorativeness of the painting? If you pay attention to the groups of birches that are placed with precise precision on the canvas, or rather on the bases of the trunks, you will notice how they are deliberately flattened, which creates a certain convention. Also, decorativeness is manifested in static quality - the foliage on the trees seems to have frozen, and the air is so transparent that it is obvious: there is not a single breath of wind in the clearing. The thicket in the depths of the picture is devoid of detail - it is a dark green wall, designed to highlight the color contrasts.

But all the beauty lies in the piercing greenery and sunlight. The artist deliberately “lowered” the shadow into the foreground, further emphasizing the contrast in relation to the sun-drenched clearing.

You don’t immediately notice a stream with greenish water, although it flows in the very center - it seems that the sun, breaking through the crown of trees, has thus transformed the path. However, the glittering mirror surface confirms that it is the stream that conventionally divides the canvas into two halves.

The author used pure bright colors, and if you look at them fragmentarily, it seems that sometimes they are simply unrealistic, but as soon as you take a wide look at the canvas, you feel this sunny bright day almost physically.

Kuindzhi, with his decorativeness, simplification, and innovative use of the power of color, was in many ways ahead of his time, and therefore not everyone immediately accepted the work, although it was “Birch Grove” that was destined to become the artist’s “calling card.”

And this is fair - the “birch” theme did not let go of the painter all his life. In addition to the most famous work, there are five more with the same title, of which only two are considered completed. The third painting caused the greatest controversy - in addition to the vertical format, one can sense a search in the field of symbolism... but that’s a completely different story.

(1841/1842-1910) - great Russian artist of Greek origin. He became famous thanks to his unique style of landscape painting. One of Kuindzhi’s most remarkable works is the painting “Birch Grove”.

Painting " Birch Grove"was painted in 1879, Oil on canvas. 97 × 181 cm. Currently located in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. After the work was completed, the landscape was presented at the 7th exhibition of the Itinerants or the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. The painting shows a birch grove on a bright sunny day. Even then, at the first exhibition where the painting was presented, many viewers immediately drew attention to the unusual nature of the landscape painting. Kuindzhi not only created a very sharp contrast between light and shadow, thereby emphasizing the dazzling sunlight, but also depicted unusual colors and shades that made the picture both very realistic and fabulous.

The picture is visually divided into two parts by a stream flowing through the center. The stream not only divides the picture into two parts, making it more harmonious, but also draws the viewer’s gaze into the distance, almost to the horizon. Another quality that the stream has is freshness and coolness. It is, in a way, shading the overall look of a hot day with the scorching sun.

The trees in the background act as a backdrop. Arkhip Kuindzhi deliberately does not give them drawing and detail, as if showing the viewer that the most important thing is in the foreground. Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi has always been in admiration of Russian nature and Russian landscapes, and this picture, in particular, beautifully shows man’s love for nature and the crazy inspiration that he drew from the forests, meadows and fields of the Russian hinterland.

Painting "Birch Grove". Kuindzhi

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Author - Ela2012. This is a quote from this post

RUSSIAN ARTISTS Kuindzhi Arkhip Ivanovich (1842-1910)

“For Russian painting, it was necessary for the appearance of its own Monet - such an artist who would so clearly understand the relationships of colors, would delve into their shades so accurately, would so ardently and passionately wish to convey them, that other Russian artists would believe him and would cease to relate to the palette as to some hardly necessary appendage..."
Alexander Benois - article about Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi, 1903

Portrait by V. M. Vasnetsov, 1869

Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi was born in 1842 on the outskirts of Mariupol in the family of a Greek shoemaker. The surname Kuindzhi comes from his grandfather’s nickname, which in Tatar means “goldsmith.” In 1845, his father, Ivan Khristoforovich, unexpectedly died, and soon after his mother. Three-year-old Arkhip is being brought up alternately with the brother and sister of the deceased Ivan Khristoforovich. Arkhip Ivanovich began learning to read and write with a Greek teacher, then at a city school. At the age of ten, Kuindzhi stopped studying: he was assigned to a construction contractor. From the construction contractor Kuindzhi goes to the baker Amoretti as a house boy.

His passion for drawing brought him to Feodosia to I.K. Aivazovsky. Apparently, Kuindzhi received his initial lessons in painting not from Aivazovsky, but from Fessler, a young painter who worked and at the same time studied with Aivazovsky. But soon Arkhip Ivanovich returns to Mariupol, where he goes to work as a retoucher in his older brother’s photographic studio.

In 1866, Kuindzhi went to St. Petersburg to enter the Academy of Arts. He took exams for the Academy of Arts twice and both times to no avail: his artistic preparation turned out to be weak. In 1868, Kuindzhi 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. At the Academy, Kuindzhi became friends with I.E. Repin and V.M. Vasnetsov, met I.N. Kramskoy, M.M. Antokolsky, V.E. Makovsky. The future Peredvizhniki largely determined his artistic interests.

"Autumn thaw"
1872
Oil on canvas 110 x 70
Saint Petersburg

Kuindzhi not only conveyed a cold autumn day, a washed-out road with dimly shining puddles - he introduced into the landscape a lonely figure of a woman with a child, who is walking with difficulty through the mud. In the 1890s, the artist repeated “Autumn thaw” in mirror image. The painting called “Autumn. Fog”, remained unfinished.

"Autumn. Fog"
1899
Paper on canvas, oil 54.9 x 36.5
State Russian Museum
Saint Petersburg

In 1870 - 1873, Kuindzhi often visited the island of Valaam. As a result, the paintings “Lake Ladoga” (1870) and “On the Island of Valaam” (1873) appeared. In “Lake Ladoga” Kuindzhi overcame the overstrain in conveying the state of the weather, characteristic of the works of the late romantics. The landscape is executed gracefully: subtle light shades, the picturesque integrity of the tone painting remove light contrasts, which, as a rule, impart a dramatic feeling.

"After the Storm"
1879
Canvas, oil
Sumy Art Museum

But the painting “Birch Grove” had the greatest success at the exhibition. While working on this painting, Kuindzhi was looking, first of all, for the most expressive composition. The foreground is immersed in shadow - this emphasizes the saturation of the sun in the green meadow. A sunny day is captured in the painting with pure, sonorous colors, the brilliance of which is achieved by contrast, a juxtaposition of colors purified to whiteness. An extraordinary harmony of color is given by the green color, penetrating into the blue of the sky, into the whiteness of birch trunks, into the blue of a stream in a flat clearing. The effect of light-color contrast, in which the color is not muted, but forced, creates the impression of clarity of the world. Nature seems motionless, as if enchanted by an unknown force. The landscape has been removed from everyday life, which gives it a certain purity.

"Birch Grove 2"

In “Birch Grove” the artist contemplates beauty. Therefore, the real riches of nature, its many-sided delights are given in a general plan. The image is summarized by color: the clearing is represented as a flat plane, like a table, the sky is an equally colored backdrop, the grove is almost a silhouette, the trunks of birch trees in the foreground seem like flat decorations. In the absence of distracting details and petty details, a complete impression of the face of nature, of perfect beauty, is born. Nature in Kuindzhi’s “Birch Grove” is real and conditional. “Birch Grove” did not fit completely into the plasticity of developed realism: decorative elements got in the way. At the same time, the picture weakly foreshadowed romantic transformations. The optimism of the picture seemed to express that thirst for “gratifying”, which after some time was clearly formulated by V. A. Serov and other artists of the Mamontov circle.

In the artist’s work, color is freed from dark tonality. In nature, Kuindzhi captures the finest gradations of color. In painting, the artist freely varies illumination, halftones, and brightness. He deliberately activates, sonorously juxtaposes complementary colors. Kuindzhi perfectly mastered the subtle knowledge of the harmony of colors, coloring, and tone. This ability of his was fully manifested in the paintings of 1879 and the works that followed them.

"After the rain"
1879
Oil on canvas 102 x 159
State Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow

At the end of the 1870s, Kuindzhi's relations with the Wanderers deteriorated sharply. In March 1880, he left the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions.

In 1880, Kuindzhi organized an exhibition of one of his paintings at the Society for the Promotion of Arts: “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper,” this exhibition was a huge success.

Original post and comments at

Memories of Kuindzhi:

The powerful, original character of Arkhip Ivanovich, illuminated by an aura of artistic genius, left indelible marks in the memory of everyone he met along the path of life. Among the many curious manifestations of his multifaceted life, two characteristic cases that depict Kuindzhi as an artist-teacher, and Kuindzhi as a guardian of his artistic treasure, are especially deeply etched in my memory. In January 1898, my friend and I were preparing our paintings for the “Spring Exhibition” at the Academy of Arts. Having met Arkhip Ivanovich at the Academy, I asked him to come to our apartment to look at our work. The next day, around noon, familiar measured steps were heard in the corridor leading to our room. I rushed to the door. Arkhip Ivanovich stood in front of us in his black overcoat with a beaver collar and a fur hat...

"Moonlit Night on the Dnieper":

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 those interested, and the St. Petersburg public began to besiege her long before the completion of the work. This picture has 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 for huge money by Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich...

Kuindzhi's mission in Russian art:

For Russian painting, it was necessary for the appearance of its own Monet - an artist who would so clearly understand the relationships of colors, would so accurately delve into their shades, would so ardently and passionately wish to convey them, that other Russian artists would believe him and would cease to treat the palette as if it were some kind of hardly necessary appendage. Paints in Russian painting, since the times of Kiprensky and Venetsianov, have ceased to play an independent, significant role. The artists themselves treated them as a kind of official costume, without which, only out of prejudice, it would be indecent to appear before the public.