Crimea. Southern Shore

Arkhip Kuindzhi's 'Crimea. Southern Shore' (1887) is one of his series of Crimean landscape studies depicting the coastal landscape of the peninsula's Mediterranean-facing south coast — the most dramatic and lushest part of the Crimea, with its combination of sea views, mountain backdrop, and the specific quality of intense southern light. The southern shore's landscape was among the most celebrated in the Russian Empire, its resorts and palaces having attracted aristocracy and the imperial family since the early nineteenth century.

Kuindzhi renders the Crimean southern shore with his characteristic intense atmospheric approach — the quality of the southern light on the sea and the coastal landscape creating the luminous effects that distinguished his work from conventional landscape painting. His technique of building intense light through careful tonal management gives the Mediterranean quality of the Crimean coast its specific visual character. The combination of sea, mountain, and intense southern light suits his atmospheric ambitions.