Tver province

Born in Kiev in 1858, Konstantin Kryzhitsky perfected his nascent talent at the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg from 1877 to 1884. Studying landscape painting under Mikhail Klodt, a founding member of the Peredvizhniki [Itinerants], Kryzhitsky achieved the rank of Artist of the First Class. He was subsequently made an Academician in 1889. From 1879 onwards, Kryzhitsky frequently exhibited at the Academy, but also abroad, most notably at the International Exhibition in Munich in 1909 where he was awarded a gold medal for his composition Frosty Morning [Moroznoe utro]. A leading member of a number of societies, including the Society of Russian Watercolourists [Obshchestvo russkikh akvarelistov] and the Kuindzhi Society [Obshchestva Kuindzhi], of which he was also President (1909-1911), Kryzhitsky was later commemorated by two significant solo exhibitions comprising around 600 works; the first in St Petersburg in 1911 and the second in Moscow in 1913.
Kryzhitsky was famed for his large-scale compositions, skilfully drawing together the varied land, dramatic skies and expansive vistas of his native land. Depicting the provinces of Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic States, Kryzhitsky’s work is evocative as well as well-observed; in Tver province Kryzhitsky shows the beauty of the unbesmirched environs of Tver, far removed from over-crowded cities scarred by industry. Captured from a bird’s eye view point, the painting offers a breathtaking view of a plain with a river slicing through it, its mirror-like surface reflecting the flora of the left bank and soft light of an early morning. As the haze slowly disperses, a flock of birds soars upwards, giving the viewer a sense of the vastness of the Russian land and its austere and captivating beauty.