Ukrainian Night

Ukrainian Night is an oil on canvas painting by Russian artist Arkhip Kuindzhi, from 1876. The painting is part of the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow.

History

The painting Ukrainian Night was first shown in 1876 at the 5th exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions and was a great success there. It was also exhibited in the Russian Art Department at the 1878 Paris Exposition. In 1878 for this painting, along with the paintings On the Island of Valaam, Chumatsky tract in Mariupol and Steppe, Kuindzhi was awarded the title of class artist of the 1st degree.
This painting is considered a turning point in the artist's work. Starting with it, he moved away from the academic romanticism of his earlier works, and the exoticism of the image became a distinctive feature of his work. Most of the painting Ukrainian Night is painted in velvet blue-black tones, and only the light walls of the village mazanka houses in the right part of the painting shine brightly in the moonlight.

Reviews

Writer Mikhail Nevedomsky, author of a biography of Kuindzhi, wrote:
And art historian Vladimir Petrov wrote so in his article dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arkhip Kuindzhi: