A sunrise painting shows the sun coming up, or the light just before it. It is harder to paint than a sunset: the painter waits outside in the dark, and the light changes within minutes.
A low sun sends its light through more air, which scatters the blue away and leaves orange and pink. Morning mist softens the edges and cools the colors.
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How These Were Chosen
One condition was enough to keep a painting. Either dawn is the whole subject, with no story that needs it. Or a document explains why the dawn is there: a commission, a letter, a plan. I left out sunrises that only light a battle or a portrait, and any I couldn't tell from a sunset.
12. Arkhip Kuindzhi, Morning on the Dnieper (1881)
Pink haze lies over the high bank of the Dnieper. In the meadow in front, thistles and wildflowers stand in the light.
Arkhip Kuindzhi painted Morning on the Dnieper in 1881, on a canvas about 1.7 meters wide.
Kuindzhi called landscapes like this "melodies of Little Russian song," according to the Tretyakov Gallery. Little Russia was the Russian empire's name for much of today's Ukraine.
His solo show in St. Petersburg opened in January 1882 with only three paintings. Morning on the Dnieper hung there with Birch Grove and Moonlit Night on the Dnieper.
The merchant and collector Pavel Tretyakov bought it from the artist that same year. His gallery in Moscow still owns it.
What I keep looking at is the thistles in the foreground. A painter famous for glowing skies gave the front of the picture to thistles and wildflowers.
At a Glance
Artist: Arkhip Kuindzhi (1842 to 1910)
Painted: 1881
Medium: Oil on canvas
Where to see it: State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
About This Painting
Is Morning on the Dnieper the same painting as Moonlit Night on the Dnieper?
No. Moonlit Night on the Dnieper is a separate canvas of 1880, now in the Russian Museum. The two hung together in Kuindzhi's 1882 show.
How big is Morning on the Dnieper?
Morning on the Dnieper measures 107.5 by 170.5 cm, about 42 by 67 inches. It is a wide canvas, much wider than tall.
How many people saw Kuindzhi's 1882 show?
Kuindzhi's show ran from 15 January to 21 February 1882 and drew 9,057 visitors, according to the Tretyakov Gallery's magazine. Morning on the Dnieper was one of only three paintings on view.
11. Albert Bierstadt, Sunrise on the Matterhorn (after 1875)
A tall canvas shows the Matterhorn far in the distance, wrapped in cloud above a low rocky foreground. Albert Bierstadt painted Sunrise on the Matterhorn after 1875. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns it.