Red Sunset

Arkhyp Kuindzhi (Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi) Ukrainian, born Russian Empire

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 800


Kuindzhi’s style is exemplified here by the minimalist composition and dramatic light, color, and clouds. The site has been identified as the river called the Dnipro in Ukrainian (Russian, Dniepr; Belarusian, Dnyapro), which runs south through the three countries to the Black Sea. The artist was born along the coast in Mariupol when the Ukrainian city was part of the Russian Empire. Kuindzhi, who was descended from Pontic Greeks from Crimea, spoke Greek, Crimean Tatar, Russian, and Ukrainian, a skill that served him well as he moved around the northern Black Sea and then to St. Petersburg. There he associated with the Peredvizhniki (sometimes translated as the Wanderers), a pioneering exhibition group, and was later an influential teacher at the Academy of Fine Arts.

In March 2022, the Kuindzhi Art Museum in Mariupol, Ukraine, was destroyed in a Russian airstrike.

Red Sunset, Arkhyp Kuindzhi (Arkhip Ivanovich Kuindzhi) (Ukrainian, born Russian Empire, Mariupol 1841–1910 St. Petersburg), Oil on canvas

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