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Portrait of the artist's wife Anna Petrovna with sons Nicholas and Peter
Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge • Painting, 1861
Description of the artwork «Portrait of the artist's wife Anna Petrovna with sons Nicholas and Peter»
About this job GE knows quite a bit: written in Italy around 1861; in the early twentieth century, apparently, was taken by the artist's son Nikolai in Switzerland together with a large collection of drawings and paintings GE, rejected state Tretyakov galleries; in 2011, the year was displayed at a major exhibition in the Tretyakov gallery, dedicated to the 180th anniversary of GE.
"I'll show you my Madonna"
Rare documentary evidence of the painting can be found in the book of Vladimir Stasov "N. N. GE. His life, works and correspondence":
At the beginning of 1880-x years on the farm of Ivanovo, in the Chernihiv region, came some economic cases the landowner from Kiev. No one was home, but "soon, alley or lane seemed to master. He walked quickly, almost youthful gait, without a hat. Sparse hair, fluttering in the wind, as if a halo surrounded his head". The owner seemed friendly and cheerful guest. Talked about the sale of land on the great Carolingian poplars growing in the garden, about the management of the economy. Then the landowner was invited to the house. There svezheoshtukaturennoj grey wall she saw portraits Nekrasov, Turgenevand Kostomarovand only then it dawned on her: the owner of Ivanovskoye, so accessible and fun is famous all over the Russian artist GE! "At lunch Kyo said, "I'll show you my Madonna." It was a portrait of his wife and two sons, taken when they were very young children. Now one of them was here and there was a very handsome youth, whom the father during the whole of dinner matchmaker for the daughter who came with me landowner. For this reason it was said so many funny and witty that we all laughed exactly crazy".
Love story
GE met Anna Petrovna, his future wife, in absentia. It happened in the mid 1850-ies, when a student of the Imperial Academy of arts Gyo shared a flat in St. Petersburg with his friend, a student sculptor Barmenom Zabello. Quite often Parmenu received letters from his sister Anna, who lived in the parent's estate in Chernihiv. It so happened that the GE read one of her letters to her brother. Then second, third... Letter had taken him to its sublime structure and maturity of thoughts. Soon Kyo and myself entered into conversation with the strange girl and found that their tastes and beliefs are similar in many respects – e.g., both considered his favorite writer Alexander Herzen. A few letters GE found that strongly in love with the "divine Anna Petrovna" and even assured a friend that on anyone, except for his sister will never get married. The amazing thing is that it was true. In 1856, the year the 25-year-old Nicholas and 24-year-old Anna married in the Church in Chernihiv village of Monastyryshche and immediately went to Rome: shortly before this, GE received the Great gold medal of the Academy for the painting "Saul at Endor sorceress"that gave the right to pensionerstvo in Italy.
What do we know about Anna Petrovna GE?
All her life she was the faithful companion of the artist: 13 years the couple Kyo have lived in Italy, where were born their sons Peter and Nicholas ("white and black" as he called them GE), then they returned to Russia and after four years spent in St. Petersburg, GE and Anna Petrovna moved permanently to the farm Ivanovskoye, Chernihiv province. Soon GE was infected by ideas of Leo Tolstoy and became a vegetarian, stopped Smoking, gave many of its owned land plots to the peasants, learned to work in the field and to put the furnace, trying to live in a way that benefited the middle. His "simplification" was given to the wife is not easy: they sometimes quarreled, but to a confrontation as Tolstoy and Sophia Andreevna still not reached. "My lady does not want to live simply"– jokingly complained in a letter to Tolstoy of GE.
Tolstoy's daughter Tatiana Lvovna says that determination and uncompromising in judgments Kyo called his wife "the Prosecutor", and working on paintings, often invited her to assess made by: "Oh, Anechka, look, what is wrong". Anna Petrovna, a trained eye saw the unmistakable blemishes, smooth voice voiced their opinions, and almost always GE was with her I agree.
Tolstoy's Wife Sofya Andreyevnain his memoirs, "My life" also left a few lines about Anna Petrovna. They aren't that special tact: "Wife of Nicholas... was short, blond and ugly woman with a large head and a pleasant smile. She somehow patronizing attitude to her husband, emphasizing its frivolity, distraction, and the more it seemed like she was his mother than wife". More Fat calls Anna GE "not graceful by nature and little suitable to the artist". However, it is more memories tell us about the character of Sofia Andreevna than shed light on what actually was the wife of GE.
No wonder the artist was telling a random visitor about "the Madonna": Anna Petrovna, the picture shows it as often painted the virgin Mary with the Infant Christ and St John the Baptist. In the Kiev Museum of Russian art is stored another portrait of Anna Petrovna GE: charming and serious young woman in a white morning dress settled in a chair with a book, and through the balcony doorway are seen the white houses and blue mountains of Italy. Both paintings tacitly suggest: Nikolai GE treated his wife with reverence and awe.
Anna Petrovna GE died in 1891, the year, and GE buried her in Ivanovskoye directly in the garden of their estate. He survives his wife only three years and will be buried next to her.
Author: Anna Yesterday
"I'll show you my Madonna"
Rare documentary evidence of the painting can be found in the book of Vladimir Stasov "N. N. GE. His life, works and correspondence":
At the beginning of 1880-x years on the farm of Ivanovo, in the Chernihiv region, came some economic cases the landowner from Kiev. No one was home, but "soon, alley or lane seemed to master. He walked quickly, almost youthful gait, without a hat. Sparse hair, fluttering in the wind, as if a halo surrounded his head". The owner seemed friendly and cheerful guest. Talked about the sale of land on the great Carolingian poplars growing in the garden, about the management of the economy. Then the landowner was invited to the house. There svezheoshtukaturennoj grey wall she saw portraits Nekrasov, Turgenevand Kostomarovand only then it dawned on her: the owner of Ivanovskoye, so accessible and fun is famous all over the Russian artist GE! "At lunch Kyo said, "I'll show you my Madonna." It was a portrait of his wife and two sons, taken when they were very young children. Now one of them was here and there was a very handsome youth, whom the father during the whole of dinner matchmaker for the daughter who came with me landowner. For this reason it was said so many funny and witty that we all laughed exactly crazy".
Love story
GE met Anna Petrovna, his future wife, in absentia. It happened in the mid 1850-ies, when a student of the Imperial Academy of arts Gyo shared a flat in St. Petersburg with his friend, a student sculptor Barmenom Zabello. Quite often Parmenu received letters from his sister Anna, who lived in the parent's estate in Chernihiv. It so happened that the GE read one of her letters to her brother. Then second, third... Letter had taken him to its sublime structure and maturity of thoughts. Soon Kyo and myself entered into conversation with the strange girl and found that their tastes and beliefs are similar in many respects – e.g., both considered his favorite writer Alexander Herzen. A few letters GE found that strongly in love with the "divine Anna Petrovna" and even assured a friend that on anyone, except for his sister will never get married. The amazing thing is that it was true. In 1856, the year the 25-year-old Nicholas and 24-year-old Anna married in the Church in Chernihiv village of Monastyryshche and immediately went to Rome: shortly before this, GE received the Great gold medal of the Academy for the painting "Saul at Endor sorceress"that gave the right to pensionerstvo in Italy.
What do we know about Anna Petrovna GE?
All her life she was the faithful companion of the artist: 13 years the couple Kyo have lived in Italy, where were born their sons Peter and Nicholas ("white and black" as he called them GE), then they returned to Russia and after four years spent in St. Petersburg, GE and Anna Petrovna moved permanently to the farm Ivanovskoye, Chernihiv province. Soon GE was infected by ideas of Leo Tolstoy and became a vegetarian, stopped Smoking, gave many of its owned land plots to the peasants, learned to work in the field and to put the furnace, trying to live in a way that benefited the middle. His "simplification" was given to the wife is not easy: they sometimes quarreled, but to a confrontation as Tolstoy and Sophia Andreevna still not reached. "My lady does not want to live simply"– jokingly complained in a letter to Tolstoy of GE.
Tolstoy's daughter Tatiana Lvovna says that determination and uncompromising in judgments Kyo called his wife "the Prosecutor", and working on paintings, often invited her to assess made by: "Oh, Anechka, look, what is wrong". Anna Petrovna, a trained eye saw the unmistakable blemishes, smooth voice voiced their opinions, and almost always GE was with her I agree.
Tolstoy's Wife Sofya Andreyevnain his memoirs, "My life" also left a few lines about Anna Petrovna. They aren't that special tact: "Wife of Nicholas... was short, blond and ugly woman with a large head and a pleasant smile. She somehow patronizing attitude to her husband, emphasizing its frivolity, distraction, and the more it seemed like she was his mother than wife". More Fat calls Anna GE "not graceful by nature and little suitable to the artist". However, it is more memories tell us about the character of Sofia Andreevna than shed light on what actually was the wife of GE.
No wonder the artist was telling a random visitor about "the Madonna": Anna Petrovna, the picture shows it as often painted the virgin Mary with the Infant Christ and St John the Baptist. In the Kiev Museum of Russian art is stored another portrait of Anna Petrovna GE: charming and serious young woman in a white morning dress settled in a chair with a book, and through the balcony doorway are seen the white houses and blue mountains of Italy. Both paintings tacitly suggest: Nikolai GE treated his wife with reverence and awe.
Anna Petrovna GE died in 1891, the year, and GE buried her in Ivanovskoye directly in the garden of their estate. He survives his wife only three years and will be buried next to her.
Author: Anna Yesterday
