Радуга

1882–1901

Twenty years of seclusion

The reasons for the seclusion are unknown; he was probably tired of the fuss and of accusations of cheap effects. The public thought he had exhausted himself, but he worked tirelessly, searching for pigments and grounds resistant to the air, and created about five hundred sketches and finished works and about three hundred graphic works.

1901

Breaks his seclusion: four paintings

In 1901 Kuindzhi showed his students, and then some friends, four paintings: the finished “Evening in Ukraine”, “Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane”, the third version of “The Birch Grove” and the already known “The Dnieper in the Morning”. The viewers were enraptured, and people talked of the artist again.

1901

Cape Kuindzhi on Novaya Zemlya

In 1901 members of the expedition of the painter A. A. Borisov surveyed a cape on Novaya Zemlya in the Kara Sea and named it Cape Kuindzhi.

November 1901

The last public exhibition

In November 1901 the last public exhibition of Kuindzhi’s work took place; after it nobody saw his new paintings until his death. Witnesses explained this by his fear of sceptical visitors, but the explanation satisfied few.

1904

A gift to the Academy: 100,000 roubles for prizes

In 1904 Kuindzhi gave the Academy of Arts 100,000 roubles to fund 24 annual prizes.