The recognized master of portraiture, as well as the creation of paintings on historical and evangelical subjects, was the outstanding Russian painter Nikolai Ge. An artist of extraordinary talent, he took a strong place in the history of Russian art as a representative of a new then realistic trend.
Childhood and youth
Nikolai Nikolayevich Ge, an artist whose portrait is presented at the beginning of the article, was born on February 27, 1831 at the Ivanovsky farm in the Chernigov province, in a landowner family. Unusual to the Russian hearing, he owes his grandfather who immigrated from France at the end of the 18th century. In the original, it is written - Gay. The birth of a child coincided with the terrible cholera epidemic that raged in many Russian provinces and claimed the life of his mother when Nikolai was just born. Since that time, all cares for him were assigned to one of the serfs of his father.
According to the traditions of that era, the boy received his primary education at home, and was later brought to Kiev, where he entered the gymnasium. There is evidence that even at that time, teachers noted his outstanding talent for drawing, but his father had other plans for him. At the end of the gymnasium, he strongly recommends that his son enter the University of Kiev at the Faculty of Mathematics.
From University to the Academy of Arts
Nicholas did not dare to oppose the will of his father, but he did not choose Kiev, but Saint Petersburg University, where he was enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics. However, this was not what Nikolai Ge dreamed of. The artist, not the mathematician, lived in his soul and declared himself more and more clearly. He spent all his free time at the Hermitage, copying the canvases of recognized masters.
The result was quite predictable - in 1850 Nikolai left the university and became a student at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Here he falls into the class of an excellent teacher, and P. Basin, a very famous Petersburg artist in those years. Within the walls of the academy, he spent six years comprehending the secrets of craftsmanship and trying to imitate painters whose work made a particularly strong impression on him.
His main idol of those years was Karl Bryullov, and, according to many art historians, the artist Nikolai Ge was clearly influenced by his work. Having received the right to travel to Europe at the expense of the academy in 1857 for the successful writing of his thesis, he leaves Russia. During his trip, he visits Switzerland, Germany, France and Italy.
Success and recognition
In Rome, there is a meeting with his other idol of those years - A. Ivanov, who worked on sketches for biblical subjects, which Nikolai Ge sincerely admired. Abroad, as before, he devotes a lot of time to painting portraits. One of his most successful works of that period is the portrait sketch of his wife, created in 1858. But its main theme remains biblical and classical subjects.
In 1861, returning from abroad, Nikolai Ge shows at his next exhibition at the Academy of Arts his new painting, The Last Supper, which was a sensation. Despite the enthusiastic reception of the public, censorship was extremely hostile to her, accusing the author of propaganda of materialism and nihilism. It was even forbidden to make copies of it.
Everything changed when the canvas for his collection was personally bought by Emperor Alexander II, which immediately made the artist popularly known. In turn, the Academy of Arts, recognizing the high virtues of the canvas and expressing solidarity with the opinion of the sovereign, hastened to encourage Nikolai Ge. The artist was awarded a professorship.
Italy again
Inspired by success and already officially recognized, the artist Ge Nikolai Nikolaevich returned to Italy in 1864, where he created many sketches for subjects from the New Testament. One of the most striking events of that Italian period was his meeting with Herzen and work on his portrait.
One cannot but recognize the riskiness of this venture, because Herzen was officially considered a state criminal, hiding abroad from justice, and the creation of his portrait could be regarded as a political gesture. However, it was this painting, made in record time - in just five sessions - recognized as the best of his portraits. To the great chagrin of Nikolai Nikolayevich, his painting "Heralds of the Resurrection", completed and sent to his homeland, was not successful with the public. In 1869, the artist returned to Russia.
The last Petersburg period
Finding himself in the very midst of metropolitan life, Ge enters into the union of future Wanderers and actively participates in the preparation of their first exhibition, which opened in 1871. On it, he shows the public his most famous masterpiece of our time, "Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof." The painting, which received well-deserved recognition from the visitors of the exhibition, was bought by P. Tretyakov, the most famous Russian collector and philanthropist, in the artist’s workshop.
Over the next four years spent in St. Petersburg, the artist creates a gallery of portraits of the most prominent representatives of the Russian intelligentsia. Among them I. Turgenev, N. Nekrasov and a number of others. In the same period he saw the light created by him a sculptural portrait of V. Belinsky.
Departure to Ukraine
In 1875, Nikolai Nikolaevich left St. Petersburg forever and, having moved to Ukraine, acquired a house in the Chernigov province. The reason for his departure, researchers believe creative dissatisfaction and material problems, aggravated by then. Being away from the noise of the capital, Ge almost completely stops painting and devotes himself entirely to issues of religion and morality. Only extreme need makes him take up his brush and paint on order portraits of the local rich.
Creative enthusiasm at the end of an artist’s life
In 1882, Ghe went to Moscow. This was the beginning of a new creative upsurge, marked by the creation of such paintings as “Exit from the Last Supper”, “Judas”, “What is Truth” and other works on gospel themes. One of his last paintings is a table with a self-portrait of the artist, painted by him a year before his death. Artist Ge, whose biography is inextricably linked with his work, died on June 13, 1894. According to researchers, his main merit can be called the creation of a realistic direction in the paintings on the gospel stories. By this, the Russian artist Ge made a contribution to world painting.