Dusk at the Dnieper River

Askold’s Grave is a nature reserve and park located in Kiev on the right bank of the Dnieper, the final resting place of Prince Askold. Since the 18th century, the park has also been the municipal cemetery.

In Jan Stanisławski’s (1860-1907) painting, a small fragment of landscape is visible. The lighting and colour scheme suggest the end of a spring or summer day. The elements of the landscape are arranged in horizontal bands. In the foreground, a band of dense vegetation is shown, comprising tall, common perennial plants behind which fragments of the surface of a body of water and its far shore shine through. The upper part of the composition is occupied by the evening sky, shown as a transition of colours from pale blue, through violet, to orange and yellow.