Mondnacht am Dnjepr

In 1880 Kuindzhi did something almost nobody did. He hung a single painting in a darkened room in Saint Petersburg, drew a black curtain around it, and aimed one electric lamp straight at it. Electric light was still a novelty then, and this was one of the picture and the effect. The painting is a night view of the Dnieper river, with a band of moonlight lying on the dark water. People queued in the street to see it. Some were so convinced the glow was real that they walked behind the canvas looking for a hidden lamp, sure he was cheating. He was not. There is a sad footnote in the paint itself. Kuindzhi used an unstable mixture to get that light, and over the years it has darkened, so the moon we see now is dimmer than the one that stunned the crowds.