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SAINT AND WOMAN

Creator(s): Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov (Painter)

Currently in storage


About this object

Mikhail Nesterov is perhaps best known for his efforts to revive religious painting in late nineteenth-century Russia. A deeply religious man, he was unconcerned with the sorts of history or genre painting practiced by academic painters. Nesterov completed this drawing in the 1890s, a decade in which he created such influential works as The Vision of the Boy Bartholomew (Videnie otroku Varfolomeiu; 1889-1890, Moscow, Tretyakov Gallery) and In the Hills (Na gorakh; 1896, Kiev, Museum of Russian Art). Compositional elements of this work, which may have been created as a study for a similar painting, are reminiscent of these well-known Nesterov paintings.

A boy saint clothed in white gown and standing on a small cloud appears before an old peasant woman sitting on a bed. The saint has his arms crossed on his chest and over his head is a red cross. Woman is dressed in a dark skirt with a light panel down the front and a light green blouse with red trim. She has a dark scarf with a light patterned border over her head. Her arm is crossed over her chest, and she appears to be shedding a tear. Drawing is done in pencil and watercolor on paper.

Object name:
SAINT AND WOMAN
Made from:
Pencil and watercolor on paper
Made in:
Russia
Date made:
1897
Size:
28.3 × 19.7 cm (11 1/8 × 7 3/4 in.)

Detailed information for this item

Catalog number:
52.37
Class:
DRAWING
Signature marks:
SIGNATURE lower right
Credit line:
Museum Purchase, 1990