Steelmaking
1930
- oil on canvas. 143 x 176,5
- ЖБ-1830
Received in 1934 from the State Museum Fund via the Moscow branch of the Union of Artists
- Period Early 20th century
- CategoryHistory Painting
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This piece was painted during the artist’s trip to Dnepropetrovsk, at the Petrovsky Iron and Steel Works. “The huge metallurgic plant breathed steam, smoke, and fire,” the artist wrote in his diary in 1930. “Inside, on the shopfloors, I was able to observe a great deal, learn about the sequence of various work processes, and sketch figures in motion. One effect of light and colour followed another. One moment the human figures and mecha nisms, frames, braces, stacks, and cranes, were hidden by a veil of smoke, the next they were drowning in darkness, and then the molten metal lit up the room with an unbelievable light. The picture changed like a chameleon” (K. S. Kravchenko. A. V. Kuprin. Soviet Artist, Moscow, 1973, p. 202).