Alexander Alexandrovich Kiselev

Original canvas. The surface is covered with a layer of varnish. There are fine lines of craquelure in the lower left corner of the painting and in the sky region. There is a small scratch in the lower right corner. Under UV pigment appears to fluoresce in the clouds and in parts of the landscape but varnish prevents a conclusive analysis. Held in a wood frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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This picturesque depiction of fishermen and peasants returning home at dusk is thought to date from the early 1870s, an exceptionally early period in Kiselev's oeuvre, while he was working in Kharkov as a bank clerk. The architecture and the peasants' headwear are typical of Southern Ukraine, and the elements of the landscape recall his View of the Outskirts of Kharkov (1875, The Donesk Regional Art Museum).  The diagonal brushstrokes, particularly evident in the sky, are hallmarks of Kiselev's painterly technique.