The “Morning of the Prince”s Hunt” is a part of Nikolay Rerikh’s Slavic Cycle. The artist created that painting together with another one - ‘Evening of the Prince”s Hunt’ for the dining room of the Oldenburgs palace in the Ramon estate. The composition focuses on riders chasing a dark figure of the elk trying to hide from the chase in the forest. Hunters are accompanied by Russian hounds, one of the oldest breeds of hunting dogs bred in our country. Hounds were used to hunt foxes, hares and boars back in the 12th century. In Russia, those dogs were called ‘barkers’, since, having picked up the trail, the four-legged hunters had to drive the animal, constantly informing their owners of the close prey with sound barks. People hunted wild boars, wolves, fox, hares and roes with them. Hounds were valued for their speed and tirelessness: the flock often hunted the beast for a whole day.
Horsemen and footmen are depicted against the backdrop of distant forested hills. Outlines of the figures, their pictorial modeling, compositional construction - all these features go back to the paintings of the 1890s. However, the principle of silhouette solution, a contrast of dark and light tones create a decorative effect that distinguishes paintings from the 1900s. The impetuous movement of all the figures on the panel is especially clear in the author’s deliberate refusal from the subtle portraiture of faces. The artist created a generalized image of hunters, and they seem to merge with the world around them.
Twenty years of the life of famous Russian artist Nikolay Konstantinovich Rerikh were associated with the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts. In 1878-1914, Princess Eugenia of Oldenburg was the chairwoman of the society. It was she who invited Rerikh to the position of secretary of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts. It was the beginning of the very close cooperation between Rerikh and the Princess of Oldenburg. The catalogue of the first independent “Exhibition of paintings, sketches and drawings” in the artist’s life, which opened on March 1, 1903 at the St. Petersburg art enterprise ‘Contemporary Art’, mentioned 7 works associated with the Oldenburg family.
A sketch of the panel ‘The Prince’s Hunt. Morning’ was issued in the “Rerikh” monograph as an “option” with the date of 1901 and an indication of the ownership by Grand Duchess Olga Aleksandrovna. In that work, the artist masterfully conveyed dynamics and movement. There are no personalities there, just a hunt. The sharp ringing sound of a hunting horn, the earth splashing from under the horses' hooves, a massive animal in front of them, and all this is against the background of the dawn sky and the rising sun.
Horsemen and footmen are depicted against the backdrop of distant forested hills. Outlines of the figures, their pictorial modeling, compositional construction - all these features go back to the paintings of the 1890s. However, the principle of silhouette solution, a contrast of dark and light tones create a decorative effect that distinguishes paintings from the 1900s. The impetuous movement of all the figures on the panel is especially clear in the author’s deliberate refusal from the subtle portraiture of faces. The artist created a generalized image of hunters, and they seem to merge with the world around them.
Twenty years of the life of famous Russian artist Nikolay Konstantinovich Rerikh were associated with the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts. In 1878-1914, Princess Eugenia of Oldenburg was the chairwoman of the society. It was she who invited Rerikh to the position of secretary of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of Arts. It was the beginning of the very close cooperation between Rerikh and the Princess of Oldenburg. The catalogue of the first independent “Exhibition of paintings, sketches and drawings” in the artist’s life, which opened on March 1, 1903 at the St. Petersburg art enterprise ‘Contemporary Art’, mentioned 7 works associated with the Oldenburg family.
A sketch of the panel ‘The Prince’s Hunt. Morning’ was issued in the “Rerikh” monograph as an “option” with the date of 1901 and an indication of the ownership by Grand Duchess Olga Aleksandrovna. In that work, the artist masterfully conveyed dynamics and movement. There are no personalities there, just a hunt. The sharp ringing sound of a hunting horn, the earth splashing from under the horses' hooves, a massive animal in front of them, and all this is against the background of the dawn sky and the rising sun.
