Sunset in the forest 1878

Arkhyp Kuindzhi painted ‘Sunset in the Forest’ in oil, but the painting’s date is unknown. The sunset, which can be seen through the vertical trees, has an orange glow. This work may have been influenced by Kuindzhi’s involvement with the ‘Wanderers’, a realist group who broke with the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg and embraced a socially critical art. As a painter of Ukrainian-Greek descent, Kuindzhi was interested in concepts of identity and territory. By painting the sunset, he uses the image of light in the darkness as a tool to question the identity of the Russian landscape. The focus on light and shadow creates a sense of drama and mystery. To understand Kuindzhi's work better, we can look at the archives of the Imperial Academy of Arts, which may shed light on how the formal institutions of art helped shape Kuindzhi’s unique style. Through detailed research, we might better understand this painting's power to challenge social norms.