Curious facts about the founder of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in the painting, sold for 4 million dollars: "Vision to the youth Bartholomew" by Nesterov

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

For Mikhail Nesterov, his painting "Vision to the youth Bartholomew" remained the most significant all his life. This is the first and most famous work in his series about Sergius of Radonezh, a medieval Russian saint, founder and abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The painting is considered to be the debut in the direction of the Russian Symbolist movement.

"Vision to the youth Bartholomew" is a painting by the Russian artist Mikhail Nesterov (1862-1942), an artist from distant Ufa. He was born into an intelligent merchant family with a religious and patriarchal lifestyle. Mother, Maria Mikhailovna, was distinguished by an imperious character and came from the old merchant family of the Rostovtsevs. Father, Vasily Ivanovich Nesterov, a straightforward and independent person, very respected in his city, was engaged in trade in manufactured goods. From the family, from the solid way of life of the entire Ufa life, the leaven has been preserved in him for the rest of his life. He always removed everything that was alien in spirit, in aspirations, both in creativity and in life. He never admitted into himself what he called the "deadly bacillus of the Russian intellectual" - skepticism.

Mikhail Nesterov burst into the artistic life of Russia boldly and swiftly, and this work about Bartholomew became the culmination of the nascent Russian symbolism. Russian Symbolism was an artistic movement that prevailed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

History of creation

This most significant and famous work by Mikhail Nesterov was written based on a plot taken from the Life of St. Sergius. Bartholomew was a smart boy. However, it was very difficult for him to learn to read. The painting depicts the very day when the father sent the boy to look for the lost foal. On the way, he met a monk who was standing under an oak tree and praying piously. The boy, seeing the stranger, humbly waited for the end of his prayer. Then the monk blessed the boy and asked him who he was looking for. The boy replied that he would like to learn to read and write the Holy Scriptures. A spiritual elder gave him a piece of prosphora (sacred bread), and from that day he learned to read. Orthodox Christians interpret this story as an angelic visit.

The image of Sergius of Radonezh was close to the artist from childhood and was the personification of Nesterov's moral ideal. The master gave the image of Sergius in his works a leading role in rallying the Russian people. Together with the Monk Seraphim of Sarov, he is one of the most revered saints of the Russian Orthodox Church. The image of St. Sergius of Radonezh became a symbol of hope for the revival of Russian spirituality. Religious philosophers considered the Trinity-Sergius Monastery the center of Russian spirituality.

The artist made sketches of landscapes in 1899 in the vicinity of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, settling in the village of Komyakovo near Abramtsevo and Radonezh. Abramtsevo became one of the favorite places of Mikhail Nesterov. Creating the image of a wonderful vision, the artist strove to convey as much historical accuracy as possible. In the distance, there is a wooden church, the two blue domes of which look like cornflowers growing in a green meadow. Behind a small village, and behind the village, there is a huge space. Dense forests surround, frame the scene of the painting. Given that the fields are already turning yellow, it is likely that it is early fall.

Painting presentation

The painting, which caused the most controversial opinions, became literally a sensation at the 18th exhibition of the Peredvizhniki. As the artist himself recalled, "the painting was judged by the Last Judgment." The main attacks came from Stasov, Myasoedov, Suvorin and others. Of course, there were those who thanked Nesterov for his work. Levitan and Surikov, Vasnetsov, Tolstoy and Gorky expressed their gratitude for Bartholomew. The work in one fell swoop overturned the rationalistic foundations that the Itinerants had so hard rooted. What is this mysticism, what is the halo above your head? Stasov even spent a lot of energy to dissuade Tretyakov from buying a painting that was "random at the exhibition". But Pavel Mikhailovich Tretyakov still acquires Bartholomew, contrary to the advice of some critics of that time.

Hero or heroine?

Nesterov painted the young hero from life. And, oddly enough, the prototype of Bartholomew in adolescence was … a girl. Once in the Abramtsevo neighborhood, he met her, sick with consumption. He was very much struck by some heavenly gaze of a girl, a thin, painful face, bright eyes. It was a 9-year-old girl from the village of Komyakino. When the artist first saw her, with short hair, with large deep blue eyes, he immediately realized that she would become the face of the hero of his boy Bartholomew. The boy looks at the abbot with admiration and great curiosity (the viewer even feels the birth of a miracle in his soul).

His blonde hair blends harmoniously with the shades of trees and fields. Especially significant is the prayer gesture in which the protagonist folded his thin soft hands. His back and knees are slightly bent, he seems intent on bowing before the saint. The hero is dressed in simple peasant clothes (shirt and pants). Before him stands the mysterious and enigmatic figure of an elder - a monk. The robe hides his face and head, but the viewer can spot parts of the gray beard. Around the old man's head is an illuminated halo. The old man holds a box with prosphora in his hands, a cross is drawn on it. The sage is dressed in a black robe with red crosses.

Continuation of the picture

Many years later, Mikhail Nesterov wrote a sequel to his most famous painting. For more than 50 years of creative work, Nesterov created 15 works dedicated to his beloved hero: "The Youth of St. Sergius", the triptych "Works of St. Sergius", "St. Sergius" and "Farewell of St. Sergius to Prince Dmitry Donskoy." A later version of Bartholomew, dated 1922, was sold at Sotheby's in 2007 for $ 4.3 million.

Summing up his entire creative life, Mikhail Vasilyevich said more than once: "To whom" Bartholomew "does not say anything, he does not need the whole of Nesterov."