The artist is Kuindzhi
This work of Kuindzhi, as it were, sums up the development of the motive of the road in the landscape of the period „critical realism “. A significant part of the picturesque canvas is occupied by the sky, covered with a veil of clouds, naturalistically reliable traces of carts and travelers in the near plan, a low horizon with barely intended circuits of village buildings is lost in the haze. Such a plot narrative contributed to the transfer of the mood of sadness and anxiety. Exhibition catalog in Malaga “Seasons. Works from the collection of the Russian Museum “. 2015. With. 116.
The Autumn Raspourist, which tells about the dull life of the Russian village, is filled with the same pain that permeates the best works of the Wanderers dedicated to the peasant theme.
The canvas was immediately noticed and appreciated with dignity. For him in 1872, Kuindzhi was awarded the title of cool artist of the first degree, and the press notes him as “an original thing that finds a great flair for the phenomena of northern nature”.
Kuindzhi is still looking for his journey in art, following the so far the prevailing tradition of the landscape. But his picture is laconic. The hut is vaguely distinguishable in a damp haze, a naked tree, three figures wrapped with the head, a wagon on the road and a barely visible convoy in the fog-these are the few details of the imprinted species, so characteristic of their dullly typical mood for the Russian revealing painting of the sixties. Changes made in the picture compared to the sketch (Nizhny Novgorod Museum) reveal the orientation of the search for an artist seeking to highlight the main thing. He removes the stones distracting attention on the ground, the fork, turns the wagon, as if moving into a foggy darkness, which enhances a feeling of sadness and loneliness, instead of a flat field on the left, depicts the hillock and increases, expands the road in the forefront. Written sensually in a rich brown-gray gamut, a swollen earth, cut through ruts and funnels filled with water, dominates in the picture. „The fatal life of the Earth itself “, which soon became a core motive for the picture of Kuindzhi „Autumn “(1875), excites it in this earlier work. Another important component of the image is the gray-ssvints sky protected by the clouds with a light strip at the horizon, directing the viewer’s gaze into the distance.
Irina Shuvalova. Kuindzhi in the Russian Museum // Arkhip Kuindzhi. SPb, 2010. With. 8-9.