Night 1908

Arkhyp Kuindzhi painted this oil on canvas, titled Night, sometime in the late nineteenth century. The painting presents a tranquil, almost mystical, view of the Ukrainian landscape at night. Kuindzhi was part of the Russian realist movement, a group that sought to depict everyday life and social issues in their art. The cultural context in which he was painting was dominated by the Academy of Arts, an institution with a history of promoting academic and historical painting. Kuindzhi was briefly a member of the Academy, but he resigned in protest after they criticized one of his paintings. Like other artists of his generation, Kuindzhi sought to challenge the established norms of the Academy. Art historians find meaning in Kuindzhi’s ability to capture the fleeting effects of light and atmosphere, and his romantic and idealized depictions of the Ukrainian landscape can be better understood through archival research on the institutional history of Russian art in the nineteenth century.