The painting depicts a dark and gloomy mountain gorge. There is also a low-rise house, illuminated by the sunlight, with white walls and a flat roof. On the right, there are two shepherdesses: one of them is sitting while the other is leaning on a low fence made of roughly arranged stones. Above the house, there are tree branches and vines that climb around poles. In the background, the sky hangs over the mountains with blue gaps between the clouds.
Sofya Vasilyevna Sukhovo-Kobylina was the first woman to graduate from the Imperial Academy of Arts in Russia with a Gold Medal. Her works include Crimean and Italian landscapes, as well as paintings depicting family estates in Kobylinka, Tambov, and Vyksa. She also painted portraits of famous people.
Most likely, Sukhovo-Kobylina’s “Mountain Landscape” from the collection of the National Gallery of the Komi Republic was painted in Italy, as evidenced by the features of the landscape, the stone building, and the attire of the young women engaged in a conversation near the stone parapet. In 1850–1851, the young artist made her first trip to Italy under the guidance of her mentor Yegor Meyer.
In 1856, Sukhovo-Kobylina traveled to Italy for a
second time to improve her painting skills. She stayed there for 10 years, and
her house in Rome, located on the street called Via Margutta, became a
gathering place for Russian painters. Such artists as Lagorio, Bogolyubov,
Klages, and Scotti attended the meetings regularly. Mikhail Scotti wrote,
