Painting “Portrait of the Artist Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge” by Nikolai Yaroshenko

“Portrait of the Artist Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge”

Date of creation: 1890

Dimensions: 92.5 x 73.5 centimeters

Location: State Russian Museum in the Mikhailovsky Palace (St. Petersburg, Russia)

Nikolai Yaroshenko, a prominent member of the Society of the Itinerants, became famous as a master of portraiture, having created a whole gallery of images of his era. He captured both typical figures of the raznochintsy intelligentsia – students, female students, workers, and outstanding figures of the second half of the 19th century, including Leo Tolstoy, Polina Strepetova and Ivan Kramskoy.

In 1890, Yaroshenko painted a portrait of his colleague in the Society – the artist Nikolai Ge. This personality evoked conflicting feelings among his contemporaries. Some considered him an eccentric hermit, secluded in his Ukrainian estate and living according to his peculiar religious principles. Others saw in him a lively mind, oratorical talent and the ability to talk about art in an engaging manner. Ge’s work also caused controversy.

He devoted the last two decades of his life to the theme of the life and death of Jesus Christ, creating many paintings and graphic works on gospel themes. The theme of the Crucifixion became central to his philosophical understanding of Christianity. Exhausted by the intense work on such canvases as “The Judgment of the Sanhedrin”, “Judas (Conscience)”, “Exit from the Last Supper”, Ge suffered from public rejection, and his paintings were banned from being exhibited.

Yaroshenko depicted the artist shortly before his death. In the wise gaze of the old man, a seeker of God, an unrecognized genius, there seems to be a question to the viewer: “What is truth?”, echoing the hero of his painting, visible in the background of this canvas.