Alexander Vasilyevich Kuprin was born into a family of poor Russian intelligentsia in the provincial town of Borisoglebsk in 1880. His father taught at a county school. The future artist attended the studio of Konstantin Yuon and studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under Konstantin Korovin. Alexander Kuprin entered the history of Soviet art as a master of landscape and still life. Today, his works are housed in the largest museums of the country.

The Novokuznetsk Art Museum presents a canvas on which Kuprin captured the midday Bakhchysarai. The artwork was created in 1930. This landscape is part of a large series of works created by the artist in Crimea.

The painter’s first encounter with the Black Sea and the Crimean landscape with its mountains took place back in 1907, when Kuprin was advised by doctors to go to the peninsula to treat tuberculosis.

The artist created many works that show the streets of Bakhchysarai, courtyards and old houses at different times of the day and year. In his large-format work “Bakhchysarai. Urban Landscape” Kuprin depicted low buildings of the southern town rendered motionless under the scorching sun, where a minaret stands out against the golden rocks.