Student Artwork Guide
Copyright This work is in the public domain. Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky died in 1911; copyright lasts 70 years after the artist’s death, so it ended in 1981.
In context
Fields — Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky
Row above: the years. Row below: how old the artist was at the start and at the end of each span — 0 at birth, 53 at death.
Painted when the artist was 34. The artist lived to 53. 6 of the 21 dated works by this artist in our catalogue came earlier.
Shaded: the lifetime of Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky (1858–1911) ▲ this work, 1892 every dated painting, decade by decade
First works: up to 1891 Main working years: 1891–1903 Late works: from 1903
Those three bands split the works this catalogue has a date for into a first quarter, a middle half and a last quarter. They are not the artist’s complete output: a thin stretch may be a gap in the record rather than a quiet spell. The same years with the artist’s life laid along them
Pick one work above: name two things it shares with this one, and one thing that's different.
More works to set beside this one: originaluniqueart.com/en/art/similar/konstantin-yakovlevich-kryzhitsky-fields-AQRCAQ-en/
Measured from the image
Main colour
Steel Blue #5a89aa
Catalogued palette
These colours inside the artist’s whole palette Find other paintings by colour
The ten leading countries
Find the three darkest countries on the map. Is the museum that keeps this painting in any of them? Write down one reason people far away might look at it.
Together these works take 100.0% of all the attention this artist's paintings received over the last twelve months. The catalogue holds 26 works by this artist, of which 15 were looked at at least once. This painting ranks 2 of them, with 8.0% of that attention. The same counts, month by month
Bars measure attention, not quality. Pick the work at the top and this one: name one thing that might make a painting famous beyond how well it is painted.
Artist and museum
Born in Kiev in 1858 to a merchant family, Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky possessed an early inclination toward the pencil that even his mathematics teacher could not ignore. This talent found its first formal structure at the drawing school of Mykola Murashko, where the foundations of landscape observation were laid. In 1877, he moved to St. Petersburg to enter the Imperial Academy of Arts, placing himself under the tutelage of Mikhail Clodt. His time at the Academy was marked by both academic rigor and a certain youthful volatility. There is a recorded moment of intense devotion when, driven by a sudden passion for the works of Arkhip Kuindzhi, he chose to destroy years of his own preliminary sketches to pursue a more direct, observational method of painting.
His academic progression was marked by tangible success, earning him several silver medals and a small gold medal for his work The Oaks. By 1889, his reputation had reached the highest levels of Russian society when his painting Forest Vista was acquired by Tsar Alexander III, an event that led to his designation as an Academician. He was a man of significant professional standing, eventually serving as the first chairman of the Society of Artists named after A. I. Kuindzhi between 1909 and 1911.
Kryzhitsky’s technical focus remained rooted in the traditions of Russian realistic landscape painting. He possessed a particular skill for capturing the subtle shifts in atmosphere, whether through the clarity of a frosty morning or the heavy stillness before a storm. His work often sought to translate the physical properties of light onto canvas, using oils and watercolors to render the textures of water, foliage, and ice.
His repertoire included a variety of seasonal and environmental studies:
Forest Stream (1909): A study in depth and tranquility, focusing on the movement of water through dense woods.
A Whiff of Spring (1910): A work that became central to a period of intense public scrutiny regarding his use of photographic references.
Ice Cutting in a Warm Afternoon Light (1886): An early demonstration of his ability to balance light and shadow.
Coastal Scene with Sailboat (1893): A broader view of maritime landscape.
The later years of Kryzhitsky’s life were shadowed by a controversy that the press of the time handled with great severity. In 1910, accusations of plagiarism emerged when critics noted similarities between his work and that of Yakov Brovar, specifically regarding a tree in the Białowieża Forest. The debate centered on his use of photography as a tool for composition—a practice that, while common, was viewed by some contemporaries as a breach of artistic integrity. The weight of this public disgrace proved too heavy to bear.
In April 1911, the same year he presided over the Kuindzhi art society, Kryzhitsky ended his life in his office. He left behind a suicide note and a body of work that remains held in significant collections, such as the State Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery. His career stands as a complex portrait of an artist who navigated the tension between traditional academic training and the evolving photographic realities of the early twentieth century.
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Look closely
Fields — Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky
Answer in your own words. There are no wrong answers here — only answers you can explain.
Write a short paragraph about this artwork. Use the facts from the earlier parts of this guide, and your answers above.
The light-dark contrast of "Fields" is recorded as gentle. Contrast describes how strongly light and dark areas differ.
Hand-painted copies of "Fields" by Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky are sold on this website: a hand-painted oil reproduction on linen canvas, ordered from its Hand-Painted Reproduction page.
The copyright status of "Fields" - in the public domain - its copyright has expired - follows from the artist's death in 1911.