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The Mining Museum Shared the Secret of the Famous Kuinji’s Painting

Куинджи
© Форпост Северо-Запад

The first exhibition of the painting "Moonlit Night on the Dnieper" took place 140 years ago. As is known, when creating the picture, the artist used special paints based on pigments from the collection of the oldest technical university in Russia.

On Wednesday, August 5, an exposition was opened in the Mining Museum, wherein natural minerals, similar to those used by Dmitri Mendeleev when experimenting on the unique palette, are presented. Mendeleev's friend, Arkhip Kuinji, needed the palette to produce the picture that later became the world-famous thanks to the effect of fantastic radiance.

Such an effect was not only due to the painter's skills. Before starting to work on his masterpiece, Kuinji carried out numerous experiments together with Mendeleev, identifying new combinations of colours. The great chemist used minerals he chose from the Mining Museum as a base material. Among these were standard pigments, such as lapis lazuli, malachite, ocher, cinnabar, vivianite and others. But Mendeleev also used bitumens from the Institute's chemical laboratory along with various metals and alloys, including bronze and at that time expensive aluminium.

лазурит
© Форпост Северо-Запад

By 1880, when the "Moonlit Night over the Dnieper" was painted, Dmitri Mendeleev and the Mining Institute had been productively cooperating for over twenty years. As such, he published his first paper on pyroxene, a mineral found at the Ruskeala deposit, in our university's journal. When searching for materials for his scientific research, the scientist repeatedly reached out to the Mining Museum. And when he was working on his Periodic Law, he came here to select mineral samples for the studies," said Elena Kotova, Scientific Director of the Mining Museum.

It is worth noting that there were several legends at the end of the nineteenth century, which emerged due to the incredible effect of Kuinji's painting. The glow of the moonlight seemed so fantastic that the artist was even accused of having connections with evil spirits. And during the first exhibitions, many visitors looked behind the canvas trying to find a light source there.

Photos below showcase samples of minerals passed to Mendeleev for his work on the unique palette (azurite, orpiment, malachite, sulfur)

камни
© Форпост Северо-Запад
камни
© Форпост Северо-Запад
камни
© Форпост Северо-Запад
малахит
© Форпост Северо-Запад
камни
© Форпост Северо-Запад