Kuindzhi and His Students. A MEMORABLE STUDY TRIP TO CRIMEA REASSESSED

Vladimir Syrkin

Article: 
INVESTIGATIONS AND DISCOVERIES
Magazine issue: 
#3 2018 (60)

A new investigation reveals fascinating details about the time Kuindzhi’s students spent in Crimea at their teacher’s generous invitation.
“Beauty begets a painter like the earth begets grass" these words from the “Essays about Crimea" by the renowned expert on regional history and culture Yevgeny Markov fully apply to Arkhip Kuindzhi.[1] The artist’s entire life was intimately associated with the peninsula: he was born into a family of Greek migrants from Crimea; in his youth he visited Aivazovsky’s studio in Feodosia; his landscape A Tatar Saklia [Hut] in Crimea” earned him the rank of artist; and he attempted to found a colony of artists there... The desire to share its beauty also inspired Kuindzhi to organize and finance a summer arts study trip for his students in Crimea.

Memoirists and biographers have differed over the time of the trip as well as its exact participants, with authoritative sources claiming that the “excursion" took place in 1895. Thus Arkady Rylov recalled in his “Memoirs": “In May 1895, I was cruising the Black Sea, on a transport steamship Sineus, from Odessa to Sevastopol, whence I would go by railroad to Bakhchisarai, where all of us students were to meet before our collective travels around Crimea."[2]

Kuindzhi's first biographer Mikhail Nevedomsky concurs: “Ever solicitous of his students, in summer 1895 Kuindzhi organized, and paid for, an excursion for a whole group of them in Crimea."[3] And Vitaly Manin's later study “Kuindzhi" endorses such an opinion: “In 1895 Kuindzhi, giving his students a sum of money, sent them to his Crimean estate, where they would be sketching in what might be called an ‘academic retreat' organized by him."[4]

However, while studying Crimean periodicals from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Crimea's oldest library, the “Tavrika" in Simferopol, I encountered an article in the “Chronicles" section[5] of an 1896 issue of the Crimean newspaper “Krymsky vestnik’’, from which it followed that the “excursion" actually took place in 1896: “Relying on information drawn from St. Petersburg newspapers, we have already informed our readers that St. Petersburg artists are about to visit Crimea on an artistic excursion. Yesterday in the morning some of the excursionists who arrived in Sevastopol left for Bakhchisarai, the excursion's assembly point. The departed artists are students from the artist Kuindzhi's workshop at the military arts school[6] run by the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts; there are 10 of them: Messrs. Bogaevsky, Kalmykov, Purvit, Stomati, Brovar, Panov, Chumakov, Khilon, Latri, Krauze, and Ryzhov. The excursion is to last 1.5 months, comprising nearly all of the region; the endpoint is Kikineiz, professor Kuindzhi's estate. The visitors are provided with appropriate letters from the Ministry of the Court requesting assistance and patronage in their undertaking of imaging local scenery. Professor Kuindzhi personally donated 500 rubles to make the excursion possible."[7]

What follows is “an art scholar's investigation" to find out the truth.

Arkady CHUMAKOV. A Quiet Day. 1897
Arkady CHUMAKOV. A Quiet Day. 1897
Oil on canvas. 95 * 144 cm. Far Eastern Art Museum, Khabarovsk

 

The year of the arts study trip

The first thought that occurred was: could Kuindzhi have organized two Crimean study trips for his students? This would also explain the inconsistencies between the listings of participants. But no evidence to support this version could be found. A close examination of documentation helped to reconstruct the chain of events.

As is well known, Konstantin Bogaevsky was dismissed - or rather, nearly dismissed - from the Academy for “lack of ability", “because his drawings of models were nearly always assigned the fourth grade". By that time Rylov and Bogaevsky had already forged bonds of cordial amity, which led to Rylov asking his professor, Kuindzhi, to help his friend Kotya to continue studying at the Academy. As a result, Kuindzhi admitted Bogaevsky to his workshop as a non-matriculated student.[8]

The archive of the Aivazovsky Picture Gallery in Feodosia holds two letters by Rylov to Bogaevsky that are directly related to this event. One of them, written by Rylov, carries the date October 2 1895: “Dear Konstantin Fyodorovich! Today, October 2, just returned from Kuindzhi, who just arrived. I told him about you and your predicament. At the end of the conversation he asked me to write to you that you don't need to worry - come to his workshop and become his student... He asks you to send him your sketches." The key words here are “become his student". It follows from the letter that in October 1895 Bogaevsky was not yet studying at Kuindzhi's workshop.

It can be assumed that the “Kuindzhists" - as the artist's students were known - left his Crimean estate in the middle, or even at the end of August: June 8 is the date on the drawing Rylov made on the Sineus steamship that took him to Crimea. The “mountaineering-and-trekking" part of the “excursion" lasted two weeks, after which the students spent two months at the Neneli-Chukur estate. If we assume that Kuindzhi's students' excursion took place in 1895, there would be little more than a month between Kuindzhi saying goodbye to his students in Crimea and Rylov writing his letter to Bogaevsky at the beginning of October. The letter makes it clear that Kuindzhi asked Bogaevsky to send him his sketches, which means that Kuindzhi had not seen them (or hadn't remembered them, or had already forgotten them). Something seems wrong...

Final clarity about the date of the study trip came thanks to an item published in the 1896 compendium of the “Transactions of the Crimean Mountaineering Club". Its “Newspaper Clips" section informed: “This summer 11 young artists from Kuindzhi's academic workshop are undertaking an arts excursion across Crimea. They would produce drawings of Crimean scenery, to be displayed at the autumn show of students' works at the Academy of Fine Arts. Professor Kuindzhi, who initiated the Crimean excursion, personally financed this undertaking. The excursionists (Messrs. Bogaevsky, Brovar, Kalmykov, Krauze, Latri, Panov, Purvit, Rylov, Stolitsa, Khimona, Chumakov) are to assemble by June 10 in Bakhchisarai, where they will hire a Tatar araba [wheeled cart], to take rides across Crimea over two or three months, without stopping in towns and mostly preoccupying themselves with wilderness. In response to Kuindzhi's request, the Academy provided the excursionists with a special letter asking officials in charge to ensure no obstacles are made to the painters as they pursue their journey."[9]

That is indeed how events must have taken place. Thus, Kuindzhi's first biographer Mikhail Miklashevsky (who wrote under the penname M. Nevedomsky) was mistaken, although that is hard to believe since he started writing his book during Kuindzhi's lifetime and included into his monograph not only his personal memoirs but recollections of the artist's students and friends as well. Nevertheless, facts cannot be ignored..

Nevedomsky's authority as a source spawned further consequential errors: the wrong date has moved from one book to another, one writer to another. It was even repeated by Rylov in his “Memoirs", something that is easier to explain: Rylov finished his book in 1926, 30 years after the events under discussion. Rylov and Manin gave the wrong dates because they had both used Nevedomsky's monograph for reference.

But there is something else that is more difficult to explain. The listing of Rylov's works compiled by T. Petrova, and published as an appendix to Fedorov-Davydov's monograph “Arkady Alexandrovich Rylov", includes three pieces dated 1895:[10]

“1. The Village of Urkusta. Oil on canvas, 22 by 29.
Signature right bottom: A. Rylov 95. Private collection, Leningrad. A.A. Rylov show (posthumous). Leningrad, 1940.
2. Boulders on the Beach. Crimea. Oil on canvas, 21 by 25.3.
Signature right bottom: A.R. 1895. A. Rylov Regional Picture Gallery, Kalinin.
3. Uzuntash (sic) Cliff. Oil on canvas, 28 by 46.
Signature right bottom: 1895. A. Rylov. Kekeneiz (sic).

Collection of S.L. Rylova, Leningrad. Shows: the A.A. Rylov show (posthumous). Leningrad, 1940; and paintings of Russian artists of the 18th-early 20th centuries from Leningrad private collections, Leningrad, 1955.”

Each work is dated by the year of its creation. It could be supposed that Rylov might have visited Crimea in the year before the celebrated excursion had he not written, in his “Memoirs", this phrase about the Kuindzhi study trip: “For the first time I saw the real sea - the dream of my childhood."[11]

Perhaps the dates and all inscriptions were added to the paintings later. Rylov most probably applied them when preparing the pieces for exhibition in the late 1910s, namely 20 years after they were created, so thus he made an unwitting mistake. Thus, failings of human memory account for the wrong date of the Kuindzhists' Crimean “excursion" both in Rylov's “Memoirs" and the inscriptions on these paintings.

There is another argument in favour of 1896. Niko- laos Himonas (Khimona) joined Kuindzhi's workshop only in 1896, after Ivan Shishkin had left the Academy: thus, in 1895 he was not yet officially Kuindzhi's student and, if we assume that the excursion took place that year, some farfetched explanation must be sought as to why Kuindzhi invited a student from another workshop. The same applies to Arkady Chumakov.

It follows from the above that the year of the creation of Rylov's Crimean works should be reconsidered and, despite the inscriptions made by the artist (if they were indeed made by him), changed to 1896. The same applies to those of his drawings which Petrova, for reasons that are easy to understand, dated 1895:[12]

“1. On the Sineus steamship. Pencil on paper. 22 by 31.3 cm. Inscription right bottom: Sineus 8 June; and inscription right bottom: Odessa-Sevastopol. Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
2. Sineus Steamship. Pencil on paper, 24 by 31.2 cm. Inscription right bottom: Sineus 8 June; and inscription right bottom: Odessa-Sevastopol. Collection of S.L. Rylova, St. Petersburg”.

Such facts fully support the argument that the Kuindzhi arts study trip in Crimea took place in 1896, and not in 1895 as previously believed. Several more general considerations follow: having been reproduced in a great many publications, the wrongful dating of the excursion has gained such wide currency that not even conclusive evidence of it being incorrect will prevent the same error being repeated in texts that will be written in the future. I have counted more than 30 pieces of writing devoted to Kuindzhi and his students that state that he organized “an excursion" to Crimea for his students in 1895.

The correction of the date also has considerable practical importance. In an antiquities store in a former Soviet republic the date on a painting made me question the authenticity of the small Crimean landscape attributed to one of “our excursionists". Further developments showed that my doubts were fully justified.

 

The travelers

Arkhip KUINDZHI. The Sea
Arkhip KUINDZHI. The Sea
Oil on paper mounted on canvas. 42 * 53 cm. Samara Regional Art Museum

Now that the confusion with the dating has been clarified, it's time to determine who exactly took part in this Crimean journey, relying on similar newspaper and magazine publications of the late 19th century.

There are three sources listing the “excursionists". In the news piece in “Krymsky vestnik", the phrase “there are 10 people" is followed by 11 names of the “excursionists": Bogaevsky, Kalmykov, Purvit, Stomati, Brovar, Panov, Chumakov, Khilon, Latri, Krauze, Ryzhov.[13]

Rylov in his memoirs states: “Arkasha Chumakov and I... arrived to the Bakhchisarai station... All are here already: Khimona, Latri, Stolitsa, Brovar, Kalmykov with a guitar, Bogaevsky, Krauze."[14] Finally, the “Transactions of the Crimean Mountaineering Club" list Bogaevsky, Brovar, Kalmykov, Krauze, Latri, Panov, Purvit, Rylov, Sto- litsa, Khimona, Chumakov.[15]

As we can see, the lists of participants from different sources have slight variations in terms of both number and names. Some inconsistencies can be explained away quite easily: the Ryzhov and Khilon mentioned in “Krymsky vestnik" are obviously Arkady Rylov and Nikolaos Himonas.

This writer believes that Yevgeny Stolitsa, who is not mentioned in the “Vestnik" article, nevertheless travelled to Crimea with the group. This can be inferred from certain quotidian details mentioned in the passages from Rylov's memoirs that deal with the Kuindzhists' sojourn in Crimea: “Once the sea was fairly rough. Our company left the beach for a night, camping far out in the woods, and only Stolitsa and I remained loyal to the sea."[16] In addition, Stolitsa is mentioned in a text from the “Transactions of the Crimean Mountaineering Club".

It is hard to say whether Vilgelm Purvit (Vilhelms Purv?tis), who is mentioned in the newspaper, took part in the expedition. Rylov's memoirs were written, or rather dictated, many years after the events under discussion.

He might simply have forgotten that Purvit was with them. Other sources, however, do not mention Purvit's participation either, although nearly every source mentions that he was one of those Kuindzhi students who travelled abroad.

Now we are left with two unresolved cases - Panov and Stomati. Perhaps Stomati was “Stolitsa" misrepresented beyond recognition. As for Panov, Kuindzhi did not have a student with such a surname. It is possible that Kuindzhi could invite into the group someone that he knew: in 1897, when his students travelled abroad, he included into the group some from Vladimir Makovsky's class. Panov's initials are missing, which further complicates the matter: he could have been Vladislav Yevgenievich Panov (25.06.1870-1943)[17], or N.I. Panov, who later worked with the Kuindzhists at the Society for Encouragement of the Arts,[18] or Nikolai Zakharovich Panov[19] (1871- 1916).[20] But that is only conjecture.

Nevertheless, comparing these sources, we can safely assert that nine of Kuindzhi's students took part in the excursion - Konstantin Bogaevsky, Yakov Brovar, Grigory Kalmykov, Pyotr Krauze, Mikhail Latri, Yevgeny Stolitsa, Arkady Rylov, Nikolaos Himonas, Arkady Chumakov. Perhaps they were also accompanied by Vilgelm Purvit and a certain Panov.

The excursionists came from ethnically diverse backgrounds: Russian, Greek, Ukrainian, Armenian, French. Five of them were natives of Crimea: Konstantin Bogaevsky was born in Feodosia, Nikolaos Himonas in Yev- patoria, Grigory Kalmykov in Kerch. At the time of the Kuindzhists' Crimean excursion Arkady Chumakov's family lived in Sevastopol, Mikhail Latri's mother in Yalta, and his grandfather in Feodosia.

The youngest excursionist, Latri, was 19, the oldest, Brovar, 32.

 

The route of travel

It's worth returning to the moment when the Crimean trip was first contemplated. “He [Kuindzhi] suggested we travel in Crimea Gypsy-style and live on his land near Kikineiz, on Crimea's south coast. He described Crimean nature and living amidst it so well that I was willing to set out practically at once," Rylov recalled.[21]

Some argue that the “Ivanovich's" [Kuindzhi's] students stayed on his estate all the time. In fact, on Kuindzhi's suggestion their sojourn in Crimea had two stages. The first would be a passage from the foothills to his estate by the sea, one part of the journey on foot, another by cart; long halts along the way to sketch were planned. For the second, they would be staying on the Neneli-Chukur estate.

Kuindzhi's idea was that during their stay his students would be exposed to localities with different kinds of scenery - Crimea's plain steppes, the foothills, the mountains, the south coast's subtropical zone, and of course the sea. Along the whole way, living with the bare minimum of comforts, they would form as close a relationship with pristine nature as was possible, to the point of feeling a part of it.

Finally, the route was approved. Himonas (the group's treasurer) received the money from Kuindzhi. Bakhchisarai was agreed upon as the meeting place, and in early June the multi-ethnic group assembled there. The last to arrive from Sevastopol were Rylov and Chumakov. The excursionists lived in a local inn, the “Evropeiskaya".[22]

 

Bakhchisarai-Kikineiz

Mikhail LATRI. Bakhchisarai
Mikhail LATRI. Bakhchisarai
Oil on canvas. 51 * 66 cm. Aivazovsky Picture Gallery, Feodosia

The kaleidoscope of impressions that Kuindzhi hoped his students would acquire was to begin to unfold in Bakhchisarai, a typically Oriental town wedged between two limestone cliffs. Everyday life there was measured and slow, along Oriental lines. Heated by the afternoon sun, the rocks glowed in the dusk; there were minarets, tiled roofs, domes of the ancient tomb Eski Durbe, and narrow streets; geometric rhythms and rhythms of colour. Here the travellers spent five days sketching and preparing to make their way through the pass. Initial impressions of the place were captured in Latri's painting “Bakhchisarai", presently held at the Aivazovsky Picture Gallery in Feodosia.

On the sixth day of their Crimean journey, placing their baggage on a wheeled cart (araba), the travellers took to the road. The first part of the route, to Buyuk Suyren (now Tankove), lay through a Crimean steppe, its large stretches of land all scarlet with poppies, or blue with hickory. The far hills loomed in the blue distance, and the steppe seemed endless. Then all of a sudden, the Belbek Canyon... I have walked and ridden along these roads many times, every time stunned by what comes into view - the fantastically beautiful gorge, the steppe abruptly sloping uphill.

Here, on the plain by a mountain stream, near the small Tatar village of Albat (now Kuibyshevo), the travellers spent a week. According to their accounts, they were stunned by the grandeur and beauty of the locality. They spent the time swimming in the stream, sketching, and familiarizing themselves with the locals' way of living.

A week later, they set off once again, in search of new views and new impressions. Making their way through the Bechku mountain pass, they walked out onto the Bay- dar Valley - a hollow surrounded with hills on all sides. A completely different kind of scenery opened up before their eyes: the main ridge of the Crimean Mountains loomed far in the distance. Here they put up for seven days, in tents, near the village of Urkusta (now Peredovoe village). And again, sketching, more sketching.

“Near our camp in a forest, on a rock covered with velvety moss, there was a well with cold spring water," Rylov recalled.[23] Such wells exist to this day in and around the village.

They moved on, from Urkusta to the Baydar Gate; a day's travel, and by evening the view of the sea offered itself up to the travellers from the Baydar Pass. “I was astounded by the extraordinary boundlessness beholden to me as I stood very high on the mountain. The horizon and the sea with far-off sails were glowing scarlet in the rosy beams of a setting sun," Rylov wrote.[24] Tents were not pitched: they spent the night in a Tatar house, on the floor.

Early morning, they were on the road again, descending to the sea. To the left, the grey steep cliffs of Yayla, to the right, the blue sea; forest greenery at the foothills. Late in the afternoon they reached the Tatar village of Kikineiz on the south coast, and then, after a walk in complete darkness, the Neneli-Chukur Estate. Thus, the first portion of their Crimean travel was completed. It was nearly three weeks after their arrival, and in that time they had spent 18 days “Gypsy-style".

 

Neneli-Chukur

Arkhip KUINDZHI. Seashore. Breaking Waves. 1887
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Seashore. Breaking Waves. 1887
Sketch. Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. 10.7 * 17.4 cm. Vasnetsov Brothers Art Museum, Vyatka

The south coast of Crimea had caught Arkhip Kuindzhi’s fancy long ago: the dazzling mountains in the north and the luxuriousness of the vegetation; the Black Sea, always different, always resplendent; the wealth of sunlight, the velvety summer nights. He bought several plots of land there, at Alupka, Simeiz, Katsiveli and Kikineiz.

The Neneli-Chukur estate,[25] near Katsiveli, had the most pristine setting of Kuindzhi’s holdings and was his favourite. Kuindzhi several times pictured the primordial-looking beach with the Uzun-Tush (Uzuntush) rock.[26] It was there that the travellers would spend two unforgettable months.

“The place is wild, untouched. Forests, rocks, cliffs, and a blue sea. No dwellings in the vicinity, save the border guards' cabin on a hill nearby. So, it was in this place - uncultivated, without any home in sight - that we were to live out in the wild," Rylov recalled.[27]

The document “A fragment of the Polovtsev estate's layout..." features a section of the Rostislav Polovtsev estate at Katsiveli. (The document was kindly loaned to this writer by Yu.Ya. Bogun, whose great-grandfather, Leonid Nesterovich Romanovsky, worked for more than two decades, from 1897 to 1920, as confidential assistant and manager at the Polovtsev estate.) Kuindzhi's land, where the Kuindzhists camped, bordered with the Polovtsev estate. In addition to this land, the artist owned plot no. 11 located on the Polovtsev estate itself.[28]

This pattern of their daily itinerary began in the morning, when everybody left for a round of sketching, some by the sea, others climbing the mountain slopes. At noon there would be a meal cooked by a local Tatar hired by Kuindzhi. A short rest, and back to sketching again. In the evening, dinner with a samovar. Then, bedding in hand, the campers headed for the beach, where they slept the nights, right by the sea.

“Two of us could not stand the wildness of this life: they'd had enough of living in this paradise. Brovar could not stand the heat and the incessant murmur of the sea, while Kalmykov was afraid of the huge centipedes, tarantulas, earwigs and other monsters, and left us soon," Rylov wrote in his memoirs.[29] I think that such considerations were only an excuse for the departures, their real causes most likely related to age, personal circumstances, and individual temperaments. Brovar had a lot going on in his personal life then - his daughter would be born the following year - and the “fidget" Kalmykov, who had come to Crimea many times before, was simply unable to stay in one place for long. In the future these two artists would keep themselves somewhat apart from the main body of the Kuindzhi students' group, although without separating themselves from it altogether.

Kuindzhi had not planned to visit his students; he must have been busy at the Academy. But his teaching instincts prevailed: in mid-July, the artist suddenly arrived at Neneli-Chukur, after midnight. His appearance gave a new creative impetus to all of the group's members: it's one thing when your fellow students judge your works, quite another when your teacher does. By that time every student had scores of sketches under his belt, and Kuindzhi made many of them re-work their pieces. The adrenaline returned, and six more weeks passed in such a way.

Late in August, Kuindzhi gave some money to each of the students and suggested that they return home: it was the end of the young artists' amazing study sojourn. Crimeans from the south coast still use the toponym the “Kuindzhi beach" and, although it is not marked on any of Crimea's maps, every Crimean resident, from Simeiz to Ponizovka, knows the place. The vernacular place name has been in existence for over 100 years, something that speaks for itself.

Considering Arkhip Kuindzhi's thoroughness, it would be naive to think that this expedition was a one-off.

I believe that this study trip was a first step towards creating a colony of artists - a project that would never be fully realized. But 40 years after the Kuindzhists' artistic sojourn, a summer working retreat for students of the Leningrad Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (later the Repin Institute) was opened, on Isaac Brodsky's initiatives, in Alupka. The memorial plaque honouring the prominent landscapist and teacher Arkhip Kuindzhi carries the names of two participants of the 1896 study trip - Arkady Rylov and Konstantin Bogaevsky.

The study trip is immortalized in stone in the form of the memorial that was mounted over Kuindzhi's grave at Smolenskoye Cemetery in St. Petersburg in 1911.[30] According to Rylov, this monument's form and appearance was inspired by the well[31] at Kuindzhi's estate Neneli-Chukur: “This memorial of grey granite resembles the Crimean well from which his students could ‘drink the water of life' that their teacher was provide them with right up until his death."[32]

 

  1. Markov, Ye.L. “Essays on Crimea: Scenes from Crimean Life, Nature, and History”. St. Petersburg- Moscow, 1902. P. 116.
  2. Rylov, A.A. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 5. Hereinafter - Rylov.
  3. Nevedomsky, M.P.; Repin, I.E. “Kuindzhi”. Rostov-on-Don, 1973. P. 188.
  4. Manin, V.S. “A[rkhip].I[vanovich]. Kuindzhi”. Moscow, 1976. P. 116.
  5. “Krymsky vestnik” (Crimean Newspaper), 1896, No. 123. June 8.
  6. In this article, the Higher School of Art under the aegis of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg was mistakenly referred to as the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts’ military arts school.
  7. Ibid.
  8. Rylov. P. 55; Bashchenko, R.D. “K[onstantin].F[yodorovich]. Bogaevsky”. Moscow, 1984. P. 16.
  9. “Transactions of the Crimean Mountaineering Club”. Odessa, 1896. Nos. 5-6. Pp. 30-31.
  10. Fedorov-Davydov, A.A. “Arkady Alexandrovich Rylov”. Moscow, 1959. Pp. 160-161.
  11. Rylov. P. 58.
  12. Fedorov-Davydov, A.A. Op. cit. P. 192.
  13. “Krymsky vestnik”.
  14. Rylov. P. 59.
  15. “Transactions of the Crimean Mountaineering Club”. Pp.30-31.
  16. Rylov. P. 65.
  17. http://interpretive.ru/termin/panov-vladislav-evgenevich.html
  18. Konyakhin, N.P. “A[rkhip].I[vanovich]. Kuindzhi”. Moscow, 1966. Pp. 132, 395, 491.
  19. Nikolai Zakharovich Panov was an artist and engraver, teacher and art critic. He studied, and then taught, at the Baron Stieglitz School of Technical Drawing in St. Petersburg. In 1903, living in Yalta, he was introduced to Anton Chekhov by the writer Garin-Mikhailovsky. In his letters written in 1903, Chekhov several times mentioned visits to Panov. On August 10 1903 Panov pencilled Chekhov’s portrait and on the same day wrote an account of their meeting (see http://ruskline.ru/monitoring_smi/2000/07/01/hudozhnik_i_graver_nikolaj_zaharovich_panov).
  20. According to some sources, 1870-1917 (?) or 1870-1931 (?).
  21. Rylov. P. 55.
  22. Rylov could have been mistaken about the inn’s name. There is no information available that an inn with such a name existed in Bakhchisarai in 1896.
  23. Rylov. P. 60.
  24. Ibid.
  25. Other known versions of the toponym Neneli-Chukur are Nineli Chukur, Nanelik-Chukur, and NaneliChukur. In the Crimean Tatar language, its meaning is “mint valley”.
  26. In Crimean Tatar, uzun means long, tush - a rock.
  27. Rylov. P. 63.
  28. There is a separate research project devoted to Kuindzhi’s land holdings in Crimea and how he planned to use them. Publication is pending.
  29. Rylov. P. 64.
  30. The Kuindzhi memorial. Architect, Alexei Shchusev; sculptor, Vladimir Beklemishev; mosaic, Nicholas Roerich. Museum of Urban Sculpture at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, the Necropolis, St. Petersburg.
  31. Now the spring is exhausted, and no trace of the well remains.
  32. Rylov. P. 155.
Ilustrations
Arkhip KUINDZHI. The Sea. Crimea. 1890s. Detail
Arkhip KUINDZHI. The Sea. Crimea. 1890s
Oil on canvas. Russian Museum. Detail
Arkady CHUMAKOV. A Quiet Day. 1897. Detail
Arkady CHUMAKOV. A Quiet Day. 1897
Oil on canvas. Far Eastern Art Museum, Khabarovsk. Detail
Crimea. View from the Baydar Gate. Postcard. Late 19th - early 20th century
Crimea. View from the Baydar Gate. Postcard. Late 19th-early 20th century
From left: sitting, Arkady Chumakov, Konstantin Bogaevsky; standing, Yevgeny Stolitsa, Arkady Rylov in Kuindzhi’s studio at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, in front of Chumakov’s painting “A Quiet Day” (1897). Late 1890s
From left: sitting, Arkady Chumakov, Konstantin Bogaevsky; standing, Yevgeny Stolitsa, Arkady Rylov in Kuindzhi’s studio at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, in front of Chumakov’s painting “A Quiet Day” (1897). Late 1890s. Photograph. (From Bashchenko, R.D. “Bogaevsky”. Moscow, 1984. P. 121).
Mountain Road to Albat. Postcard. Late 19th-early 20th century
Mountain Road to Albat. Postcard. Late 19th-early 20th century
Photograph, late 19th century. Collection of Nizami Ibrahimov
Photograph, late 19th century. Collection of Nizami Ibrahimov.
“A group of women led by an old Tatar lady on their way to fetch water, with jugs on their shoulders. Their Oriental garments, colourful and picturesque, are very beautiful.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 60.
Photograph, late 19th century
Photograph, late 19th century
“An araba cart was waggling and creaking along behind us... On its high bench sat a stolid Tatar man.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 60.
Cliffs of the Belbek (Albat) Valley. 2018
Cliffs of the Belbek (Albat) Valley. 2018
Photograph: Igor Lipunov
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Mountain Slope. Crimea. 1887
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Mountain Slope. Crimea. 1887
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. 17.7 × 11.4 cm. Russian Museum
Бельбекская (Албатская) долина. 2018
The Belbek (Albat) Valley. 2018
Author’s photograph. “We liked the location and stayed there for a week, painting sketches, bathing in the Belbek river, cooking food on an open fire.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 60.
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Mountain Valley. Crimea. 1890s
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Mountain Valley. Crimea. 1890s
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. 18 × 11.5 cm. Russian Museum
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Seashore. Crimea. Between 1885-1890
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Seashore. Crimea. Between 1885-1890
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. 10 × 16 cm. Russian Museum
Road from the Baydar Gate to Kikineiz. Postcard. Late 19th-early 20th century
Road from the Baydar Gate to Kikineiz. Postcard. Late 19th-early 20th century
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Breaking Waves on a Rainy Day. 1890s
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Breaking Waves on a Rainy Day. 1890s
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. 58 × 36.5 cm. Russian Museum
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Crimea. Seashore. 1887. Sketch
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Crimea. Seashore. 1887
Sketch. Oil on paper. 10.7 × 17.2 cm. Vasnetsov Brothers Art Museum, Vyatka
Arkhip KUINDZHI. The Sea. Between 1890-1895
Arkhip KUINDZHI. The Sea. Between 1890-1895
Oil on paper. 10.9 × 17.3 cm. Russian Museum
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Wave. 1890s
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Wave. 1890s
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. 26.2 × 36.5 cm. Russian Museum
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Clear Water. Overcast Day. Crimea. Between 1876-1890
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Clear Water. Overcast Day. Crimea. Between 1876-1890
Oil on oilcloth mounted on cardboard. 20.2 × 27.2 cm. Russian Museum
View of the Sevastopol Highway. A road near Kikineiz (known as Opolznevoye village today). Postcard. 1896
View of the Sevastopol Highway. A road near Kikineiz (known as Opolznevoye village today). Postcard. 1896
“On the left, the grey cliffs of Yayla climbed up towards the sky, some of them upright. On the right, a chaos of huge rocks fell down to the sea, stacking against each other.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 62.
Baydary village (known as Orlynoye village today). Photograph. Late 19th-early 20th century
Baydary village (known as Orlynoye village today). Photograph. Late 19th-early 20th century
“In one of the little houses of Baydary village, the hostess made a tasty fried chicken for our dinner, and then we fell asleep on the floor, side by side, after a long day on foot.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 62.
The Baydar Gate. Postcard. Early 20th century
The Baydar Gate. Postcard. Early 20th century
Crimea. View from the Baydar Gate. Postcard. Early 20th century
Crimea. View from the Baydar Gate. Postcard. Early 20th century
“I was amazed at the wide open space I suddenly saw from the huge height. The sky and the sea with sails in the distance were flushed in the pink rays of the setting sun.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 62.
View from the Baydar Gate. 2018
View from the Baydar Gate. 2018
Photograph: Igor Lipunov
Bakhchisarai. A street. Postcard. Early 20th century
Bakhchisarai. A street. Postcard. Early 20th century
“Bakhchisarai is an authentic Tatar town, with narrow crooked streets and bad roads, white, mainly two-storey houses with little windows, with a top floor hanging out over the street, thus providing shade for pedestrians, and tiled roofs. The famous Bakhchisarai Palace with its fountains looked like stage props to me as a result of poor renovation.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 59)
Kikineiz. Postcard. Late 19th-early 20th century
Kikineiz. Postcard. Late 19th-early 20th century
The final settlement of the study trip. “Tired and dusty, we entered the coffee shop and were greeted by... the watchman of Arkhip Ivanovich. Cafedzhi treated us with Crimean wine, grilled shashlyk, Turkish coffee. Thanks to the wine and all the rest, I and my friends started seeing double. Our feet were imploring us to rest, but we had to go down the foot path to the sea while there was still light.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 62.
Arkady RYLOV. Cliffs at Kikineiz. 1909 (?)
Arkady RYLOV. Cliffs at Kikineiz. 1909 (?)
Oil on canvas. 47 × 39 cm. Kostroma Historical-Architectural Art Museum-Reserve “A wild, virgin place. Forest, rocks, cliffs and the blue sea.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 63.
From the steppe towards a foothill. The Belbek Gate in the background. Photograph. Early 20th century
From the steppe towards a foothill. The Belbek Gate in the background. Photograph. Early 20th century
Arkady RYLOV. A Calm. 1917
Arkady RYLOV. A Calm. 1917
Oil on canvas. 71.5 × 118 cm. Perm State Art Gallery
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Crimea. Uzun-Tush. 1880s
Arkhip KUINDZHI. Crimea. Uzun-Tush. 1880s
Oil on paper mounted on cardboard. Private collection. “He [Arkhip Ivanovich - V.S.] chose the place for the house himself, and very special it was - on a cliff in the sea, on the famous Uzun-Tush. Pillars of rail steel are to be fixed on a flat rock, and a house built, with one wall resting against the sheer side of the cliff.” Arkady Rylov. “Memoirs”. Leningrad, 1977. P. 66.
Uzun-Tush rock, near Kikineiz
Uzun-Tush rock, near Kikineiz
Photograph: Samuel Dudin, an ethnographer, artist, photographer and traveller. Late 19th century
Arkady RYLOV. Uzun-Tush Cliff
Arkady RYLOV. Uzun-Tush Cliff
Oil on canvas. mounted on cardboard. 25.5 × 41 cm. Private collection
The Uzun-Tush cliff is today located within the territory of the “Krymsky Briz” resort. 2018
The Uzun-Tush cliff is today located within the territory of the “Krymsky Briz” resort. 2018. Author’s photograph

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