Throughout his career, the artist Andrey Kurnakov liked to experiment with compositions, materials, and techniques. For example, up to the late 1960s, he preferred oil painting, however, from the early 1970s, he started to favor tempera more.

Tempera paints are considered to be more decorative. Artists mostly use them for murals and icons. Kurnakov himself explained the reason for choosing tempera over oil as follows,

That same technique was used for the canvas “Orléans Cathedral at Night”, which depicts the main façade of the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, dubbed the heart of Orléans. The Sainte-Croix Cathedral was built on the foundations of several churches that had been there before. The first one was destroyed by the Normans back in the 9th century, the next one perished in a terrible fire a century later. The new church, which was erected on the same site, survived a lot of events, including a siege led by Joan of Arc, but it was destroyed by the Huguenots in the spring of 1568. At the very beginning of the 17th century, Henry IV and his wife Marie de’ Medici laid the foundation stone for a new church, which was completed only 130 years later. Since then, there have been no significant changes to the appearance of the cathedral.

The Sainte-Croix Cathedral was designed in the Flamboyant Gothic style. Kurnakov faced the task of capturing the dynamics and transience of the real world. The brightest color points of this painting are the lights that illuminate the Sainte-Croix Cathedral and everything around it. The artist does not make clear contours of the cathedral, which seems to dissolve in the blue night sky. The artificial lighting enhances the spectacular moment, and the real-life scene becomes more fantastic. Kurnakov paints groups of people and shadows cast by them as if in a single brushstroke. The entire composition of the busy street radiates movement and vivacity. The study “Orléans Cathedral at Night” was created in a short time and stands out as original and expressive.