Зима

1874

A bronze medal in London for “Snow”

The painting “Snow”, exhibited in 1873 at the Society for the Encouragement of Artists, won Kuindzhi a bronze medal at the International Exhibition in London in 1874.

1875

Marries Vera Kechedzhi-Shapovalova

In Mariupol Kuindzhi married Vera Leontievna Kechedzhi-Shapovalova, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, whom he had loved since his youth. After the wedding the couple left for Valaam.

1875

Admitted to the Peredvizhniki

In 1875 Kuindzhi was admitted to the Peredvizhniki, where he exhibited “The Steppes”, but from the following year he abandoned the Peredvizhnik ideas in his paintings. What mattered to him now was not to interpret life but to enjoy it and its beauty.

1875

In France: ordering a wedding tailcoat

In 1875 Kuindzhi visited France, where he ordered a wedding tailcoat with a top hat, and from there went on to Mariupol.

autumn 1877

Repin paints Kuindzhi’s portrait

In autumn 1877 Repin, briefly in the capital from Moscow, stayed in Kuindzhi’s apartment with its studio on Maly Prospekt on Vasilievsky Island and painted his portrait in a few days. In this apartment Kuindzhi later painted “Moonlit Night on the Dnieper” and “The Birch Grove”.

1878

The World Exhibition in Paris

In 1878 Kuindzhi’s works were shown at the World Exhibition in Paris in the presence of the artist and his wife; public and critics admired them and noted the absence of foreign influence. The critic Duranty called him the most interesting of the young Russian painters, in whom, more than in others, an original national character is felt.