The motive of his native land was very close to Andrei Ilyich Kurnakov in the 1950s, since only recently he defended it in the Great Patriotic War. After the end of the war, he continued his education at the Kharkov Art Institute. The landscape ‘Russian Motif’ was painted at the time when he was a student, but as a professional artist he was already a member of the Union of Artists of Russia.

The painting depicts a rural landscape, mid-autumn, October. A panorama of the Central Russian valley is in front of us. For the composition, an artist chose a viewpoint from above, standing on a hillock. In the foreground is a harvested field of warm, light ocher color with the remains of cut straw. On the right, at the edge of the picture, the brown panicles of yellow dock rise, the seeds of which will serve as food for wintering birds in the cold and hungry winter, when snow covers the ground. In the lower left corner there are traces of a plow that has screwed out layers of soil.

Further, in the background, plowed brown soil contrasts with the light ocher of the field and straw. In the composition’s center, a bush with bright red foliage flames, smoothly going down the slope to the right, directing our gaze to a small river flowing below. Its leaden water reflects a gray sky with cumulus. On the opposite bank, a fisherman in a red hat is barely visible.

Behind the river is a low-lying valley with gentle slopes and buildings standing below. This is a farm with white one-story houses with a common entrance under a gable roof. Behind it, the still greening meadow smoothly rises to the hill, on which in some places there are literally strokes depicting groups of grazing cows. Further in the background, in the center, there is a shallow ravine with green grass - a place of war games for village boys. On the right, the houses of the village are marked in dark brown spots, behind which a dark strip of forest runs along the horizon. On the left, starting from the background, power lines stretch, pulling wires to a village with white one-story houses.

Light brown haystacks stand along the road and near the forest prepared for winterfeed. A forest with already darkened deep brown foliage begins behind the haystacks. The upper part of the picture’s composition is occupied by a light gray sky with dark gray cumulus. The artist, conveying the depth and airiness of space, brightens the sky on the horizon almost to white, smoothly transitioning to lead-gray clouds at the upper edge of the picture.

The landscape was painted in oil, with almost watercolor strokes. Transparent colors convey the feeling of cool autumn air, smelling of smoke from campfires in the village gardens. The artist managed to convey through the composition a warm greenish-ocher color, a light-air perspective and a wide space, peculiar for the central part of the Russian land.

Many still lifes by Andrei Ilyich Kurnakov, in addition to purely “floral” ones and representing the trophies of “quiet” hunting - mushrooms, berries or fishing catch - can be classified as “dessert” ones. One can always feel in them the kind atmosphere of a family home that surrounded the artist, the invisible close presence of people dear to him, relatives or friends.

It is no coincidence that in this still life, in the foreground on the left, there are two pomegranates, one of which is broken into two halves, two yellow pears and two gilded piles shining from the inside. They are placed on a rough wooden countertop, standing out with bright spots of color against its dark background. An ancient copper figured vessel gives an “oriental” flare to a still life.

Kumgan is a metal or ceramic vessel for water and wine, its round part is called the body. This patinated kumgan for water, which can be seen in the exposition of the Memorial Workshop of the artist, has a spherical body on a leg, a concave neck crowned with a hinged lid, and smoothly curved long, thin nose and handle. Metal kumgans have been known since antiquity in the countries of the Middle and Near East; they are usually jug-shaped with a narrow neck and long spout. In the artist’s family, the kumgan was considered Iranian. It stands out for its verticality and central location on a round tray with a festoony - wavy, openwork - side, shining with bluish highlights.

The word ‘festoony’ comes from the word ‘festoon’, which means ‘celebration’. The word came to us from France. Festoony edges were popular in France in the 13th century. They are found in various woven products, furniture, metal products. Behind the edge of the tray are a few more pomegranate fruits, and around the tabletop lie purple-bluish draperies embracing the still life in soft folds. They serve not only as a beautiful background for fruits and kumgan, but also form a pause, which helps the bright oriental rug with a blue geometric pattern on a cherry field to ‘sound’ more actively on the left wall.

The artist related to the East by trips to the Caucasus, including Dagestan. His collection includes clay vessels from the famous Lak aul of Balkhar, whose craftsmen are known for their unique ceramics, copper Lak kumgan, metal-encrusted wooden products of masters from the village of Untskul. Dagestan carpets and Kubachi sets, two stacks of which are on the table, were common objects in the house in the multicultural space of the USSR. And the Iranian kumgan appeared at Kurakin’s house probably as a memory of how in 1941 he ended up in this country.