The Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts, founded in 1921, is one of the oldest fine arts institutions in Ukraine. It was established based on an art school that was supervised by the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts. In the mid-20th century, Andrey Kurnakov was a student of the Kharkiv Academy. At that time, the aspiring painter preferred oil painting to other techniques.
“The City in Winter” is a classic student’s sketch, painted in one session. It is a view of Krasnoznamyonnaya Street from the window of the institute’s workshop. The work belongs to the genre of the urban landscape.
The artist admires the state of nature: the night before, the snow covered Kharkiv with a white fluffy blanket. Snowdrifts have hidden the awful traces of the war, making the city look better. Kurnakov immerses the viewers into the landscape by directing their gaze toward a street that goes deep into the background. He paints the snow as silver-gray and sometimes bluish. The artist uses darker shades to emphasize the shadows cast by the buildings. However, the picture mostly has light, even watery tones.
On the right, the foreground depicts a one-story pink house with wooden shutters on the windows. There are people walking past the building along a path trodden in the snowdrifts. The thick fluffy layer of fresh snow lies on the roof. Behind this house and to the left along the street are brown-burgundy brick apartment buildings.
The middle ground shows trees in a snow-covered park enveloped in mist. The section of the street in front of them is not shadowed by the buildings and is bright white. The sun illuminates it from the right.
In the background are the silhouettes of tall buildings, barely visible in the haze; the sky is mostly bright, partly pale-yellow from the rays of the winter sun. The artist subtly outlines transitions between the colors and emphasizes the main shapes with wide brushstrokes, which also make the snowdrifts seem bigger. Despite the colors being mostly cold, the hazy blurred contours add the softness of a winter snowy day to the overall picture.
“The City in Winter” is a classic student’s sketch, painted in one session. It is a view of Krasnoznamyonnaya Street from the window of the institute’s workshop. The work belongs to the genre of the urban landscape.
The artist admires the state of nature: the night before, the snow covered Kharkiv with a white fluffy blanket. Snowdrifts have hidden the awful traces of the war, making the city look better. Kurnakov immerses the viewers into the landscape by directing their gaze toward a street that goes deep into the background. He paints the snow as silver-gray and sometimes bluish. The artist uses darker shades to emphasize the shadows cast by the buildings. However, the picture mostly has light, even watery tones.
On the right, the foreground depicts a one-story pink house with wooden shutters on the windows. There are people walking past the building along a path trodden in the snowdrifts. The thick fluffy layer of fresh snow lies on the roof. Behind this house and to the left along the street are brown-burgundy brick apartment buildings.
The middle ground shows trees in a snow-covered park enveloped in mist. The section of the street in front of them is not shadowed by the buildings and is bright white. The sun illuminates it from the right.
In the background are the silhouettes of tall buildings, barely visible in the haze; the sky is mostly bright, partly pale-yellow from the rays of the winter sun. The artist subtly outlines transitions between the colors and emphasizes the main shapes with wide brushstrokes, which also make the snowdrifts seem bigger. Despite the colors being mostly cold, the hazy blurred contours add the softness of a winter snowy day to the overall picture.
