Lake Ladoga. 1873. Oil on canvas. 79,5 x 62,5. The State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

On a Valaam Island. 1873. Oil on canvas. 76 x 130. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

Kuindzhi's canvases of that period-Autumn Weather (1870), Lake Ladoga (1870) and On Valaam Island (1873) re-created the scenery of the austere Western region Qf Russia. They are marked by the dramatic treatment of Russian reality. Dominated by sad grey tones, they look monochrome, although the artist's colouristic mastery can be felt in the subtlest chromatic variations depending on a dim sunlight or the diffused light of an inclement sky. These paintings, especially View on Valaam Island, brought Kuindzhi a recognition. In spite of a predominantly realistic observation of a modest Russian countryside in the pictures Lake Ladoga and View on Valaam Island, they still bear the vestiges of heightened romanticism in their tense psychological atmosphere created by tumultuous light-and-shade effects. These landscapes revealed Kuindzhi's knowledge of European art and the particular influence of German and Scandinavian painters.

              Alexander Pushkin.
  It’s time, my friend, it’s time...
                              1834.
It’s time, my friend, it’s time! “Repose” – the heart cries out -
As days fly one by one, with clock’s strike, onward, a part
Of life is carried off. As you and I become
Reliant on life’s pulse, with scythe for us She’ll come.
Free will and solitude – glean this from a world of woe.
Of late, to better lot in dream world I have flown.
Of late, a tired slave who craves to steal away
То a tranquil valley where to labor and to segue.