Vasili Dmitrievich Polenov, 1844-1927

Acquired by E.K.Toskin in Moscow, 1940s

The canvas has been laid on board. There are fine lines of craqelure to aline along the right hand edge of the work. The paint surface is a little abraded in places. No apparent retouching is visible under uv light. Held in a modern silvered wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame,
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In preparation for his best-known cycle of pictures, From the Life of Christ, Vasily Polenov undertook two extended trips to the Middle East in the 1880s and 90s to paint en plein air. During his travels through Egypt and Palestine he produced dozens of sketches which were exhibited at the Wanderers' Exhibitions in 1885 and 1903. Polenov was particularly inspired by French writer, Ernest Renan's humanistic version of The Life of Christ, and set out to capture the same Realism in his paintings.

 

These swiftly executed, wonderfully laconic compositions display the new sense of light and intensity which characterise Polenov's sketches from his trips, and which imbue his works with an additional emotional dimension. A contemporary art critic wrote: "The underlying aim was evidently a more philosophical one, [Polenov] envisaged conveying Christ in the landscape, and bringing nature into complicity with His life. As a result, the Christ's personality seems to dissipate into the surroundings and falls into the background [...] but His presence is still felt in the landscape" (quoted in E.Paston, Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov, Khudozhnik SSSR: St. Petersburg, 1991, p.92).