Niko Pirosmani 2

Vintage.
Photo: Füsun Kavrakoğlu, Georgian Museum of Fine Arts, Tbilisi, 2025.

Train in Kakheti.
The title of the work makes us think that the artist puts his personal emotions about native Kakhetian region…We will talk about stylistic forms…This work is an example of his typical manner – in order to depict some ordinary, everyday routine scene he never copies some real scene on his work, moreover the real logic can be just ruined. That is what we see here: we see only two small part of the railway and only two reel, painted very simply…the train carriages are standing on the ground and the railway had disappeared…But these nuances can be discovered only with special examination and absolutely do not disturb from the expressiveness of the scene – the night landscape lit by the moonlight with the moving train included in it…
Photo: WikiArt.org

Funicular
The painting shows the hill of Saint David, which is visible from almost every area of Tbilisi, with the church in the middle of the slope and the funicular – one of the most attractive places for tourists. The best panoramic views of the city are opened from here.
In 1905, opening of mountain tram-funicular in Tbilisi was a significant event. It connected the newly constructed upper part of the city with lower Tbilisi. Niko Pirosmani’s paintings are dated very seldom. Considering the date of opening of the funicular, it is possible to date this painting more or less accurately.
Photo: Füsun Kavrakoğlu, Georgian Museum of Fine Arts, Tbilisi, 2025.

Niko Pirosmani’s work is an outstanding page in the history of Georgian painting.. It is linking two historical stages and artistic systems: medieval monumental fresco painting and realistic, easel painting. Niko Pirosmani is the first Georgian painter who offers a wide range of genres and, it is noteworthy that, in all genres he creates works of equally high artistic value.

For the first time in Georgian Art the Animalistic genre appears in his works. There is a well-known expression by Pirosmani, told during a conversation with painter Lado Gudiashvili: “Animals are friends of my heart”…and indeed it is difficult to recall images of animals, depicted with similar significance and love. The style of the self-taught painter is striking – simplified drawing, distorted proportions,

conditional colors, volumetric forms – painted flatly and at the same time, amazing creative improvisation in the used pictorial-expressive techniques. For example: In the painting “Deer” the volumetric tree is depicted quite realistically, in the same painting, we are amazed by the sense of fluffiness of grass and space in the part of the sky, etc.

It should be noted separately what a vivid feeling of the particular scene is observable in the painting “Roe” and at the same time how simply, effortlessly this impression is created.

Information panels of Georgian Museum of Fine Arts in Tbilisi.