Russian landscape painter Konstantin Kryzhitsky

Born in 1859, Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky received a general education at the Kiev real school. Then, enrolled in 1877 in the Imperial Academy of Arts and worked there under the guidance of Professor Baron M. Klodt. Graduated academic course in 1884 with the rank of class artist I degree, he received a small gold medal, awarded to him for his painting “The Oaks”. And in 1889 Kryzhitsky got the academic degree.

Konstantin Kryzhitsky perfectly mastered oil paints, as well as watercolors, and worked with pencils. He painted landscapes mostly from nature of Kiev province and vicinity of St. Petersburg. Most of his paintings appeared at the annual academic exhibitions, starting from 1879, and watercolors – at exhibitions of Russian watercolors society, an active member of which he had been since its founding.

The best of his many works are: “The storm is going” (1885), “before noon” (1886), “Green Street” (1887), “Farm in Malorossia” (1888), “Fire dumped, wafted coolness” (1889), “May Evening” (1886) and others. Noteworthy, one of such painting, “The forest expance” (1889) – acquired by Emperor Alexander III).

Russian landscape painter Konstantin Kryzhitsky

In the fall of 1910 at an exhibition of Russian paintings in London exhibited the last picture of Kryzhitsky – The smell of spring. On this canvas with amazing subtlety messaging he featured pre-spring atmosphere. Blue shadows on the melted snow, mighty oaks, bathing in the rays of the winter sun … Looking at the picture, you feel joyful anticipation of heat.

Meanwhile, shortly after the show, one of the St. Petersburg newspapers, for the sake of cheap sensationalism, accused Kryzhitsky of plagiarism. However, the unjustly accuse became obvious to all. Unfortunately, the artist was not able to survive the insult and on the night of April 4, 1911 committed suicide. Konstantin Kryzhitsky left a great legacy that survived mainly in museums of Russian and eastern Ukrainian provincial cities. In particular, in the city of Samara, Saratov, Kharkov, and Petrozavodsk.

source bibliotekar.ru