“Sun spots on the other,” Quinji – overview of the painting 
- Posted by Arkhip Ivanovich Quinji
- Museum: Russian Museum
- Year: 1876-1890
Overview of the painting :
Sunspots on the other – Arkhip Ivanovich Quinji. 1876-1890. Glued oil. 24 x 27 cm
Quinji painting is a vivid and expressive example of typically Russian impressionism. The northern Russian nature, the absence of screaming “tropical” colors and the special, unique sense of peace, tranquility that just blows from the canvas – this is how this picture differs from its related samples in the same picturesque genre.
A fragment of a snowy forest is depicted on the canvas – although there are no signs in the picture to identify the area, it is clear that such a nature is characteristic of our climate. Sensually heavy snow blocks simply crushed tree branches to the ground. To this picture you can apply the figurative quote of Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov “the city covered the snow general with a hat”, only here the city needs to be replaced by a forest.
The trees in the picture are sleeping, wrapped in a thick layer of snow. On its surface lies a thin layer of frost, reflecting the sun’s rays and giving very bright spots of white. A sharp contrast gives the canvas volume and expressiveness. Due to oblique sunlight, contrasting shadows appear on a dense layer of snow, and the branches and tree trunks looking in some places, the needles, seem very dark, almost black.
The compositionally picture is designed so that the viewer feels himself being in a small clearing or progalin in the thick of the winter forest. This impression is created by the location of the trees in the snow – they seem to frame the canvas on the sides. In the foreground is an open space filled with spots of sunlight, and then the viewer’s eyes rest against the deafly snowy, simply covered with snow on the very “smack” of low trees. In the distance, in a shabby haze, the continuation of the forest is guessed, which becomes very thick, and because of untouched snow, looking like a solid color spot. The shade with which the artist depicted him echoes the color of the sky – tall and clean, but with a lead hue characteristic of winter. He still has a very long wait until the appearance of real blue.
This small but very effective picture without a special plot and characters falls into the soul precisely because of the sensation that it produces. Looking at her, the viewer feels the effect of being in this deep sleeping forest, wrapped in thick snow coat. Silence and unspeakable peace reigns there, which so far cannot wake even bright sunlight. It’s still far to spring, very far …