Pavel Kuznetsov painted the In Steppe. A Mirage picture in 1911. It belongs to the series of works Kyrgyz Suite. The painter created several versions of this plot, which are now stored in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and in the State Russian Museum, while the earliest version is in the Radishchev Museum.

The colour palette of the painting is very restrained. It consists of several colours, i.e. white, blue and yellow-orange. Kuznetsov creates the colouring of the picture using different colour shades. For instance, with the iridescence of blue, the artist paints trees, sky, earth and women’s clothes. This colour solution enhances the conditional idiom of images and brings the painting technique closer to fresco.

Kuznetsov was born in Saratov in 1878. His father was an icon painter, which is why the would-be artist was surrounded by complex, allegorical picturesque images since his childhood. He entered the Moscow School of Painting, Architecture and Sculpture, and there, together with his classmates, created the Blue Rose association. The members of this group were symbolists, that is, they used symbolism and understatement as the language of painting. The blue roses were interested in topics related to cosmos and the Universe, and they often used bluish and pastel tones in their works.

The painter became popular very early in his own country and abroad. He participated in exhibitions of Russian art in Paris and painted a lot. By the end of 1900-ies the artist faced a creative block. Contemporaries said that he began to repeat himself. During this period, Kuznetsov went to the Zavolzhsky steppes and Central Asia, and after the trip he returned to work with renewed vigour. From there he brought plots for the Kyrgyz Suite series, which includes this picture.