Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov

Mikhail Vasilievitch Nesterov (Михаи́л Васи́льевич Не́стеров) was born on the 31^st of May in 1862 in Ufa, and died on the 18^th of October 1942 in Moscow.  Nesterov was the leading representative of Religious Symbolist painting, and was known for the mystical and lyrical quality of his paintings, which combined a highly technical and modern stylistic approach with the emotional response and painting techniques associated with traditional icon painting.

Born into a family of the merchant class, Nesterov moved to Moscow in 1874, and was brought by his parents to study in a technical college, where he caught the attention of Konstantin Trutovsky[i].  Trutovsky, himself an artist and inspector of the Moscow School of Art, noticed the young man’s talent, and on his recommendation, Mikhail Vasilievitch entered the Moscow School of Painting and Sculpture, studying in the classes of Perov[ii], Savrasov[iii] and Pryanishnikov[iv].

Nesterov later moved to the capital of Saint Petersburg, and studied under Pavel Chistyakov[v] at the Imperial Academy of Arts, attracting considerable notice as a history and genre painter, but was drawn and finally joined the group of artists known as the Peredvizhniki, or Wanderers[vi]. 

His important work “The Vision of Youth Bartholemew” (1890-1891) (above) which depicts the conversion of Russian Orthodox Saint Sergius of Radonezh[vii] is often marked as his entrance into the Russian Symbolist movement, and the first painting of the Russian Symbolist Style.

In the 1890s, Nesterov became interested in religious themes. Stylistically speaking, these religious-historical works are very much in the Russian “Stil’ Modern,” but his innovation transcended Orthodox dogma, and in the 1890s-1900s, he was selected to fulfill commissions for the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev, as well as executing the designs for mosaics in the Cathedral of the Resurrection in St. Petersburg (1894-96), and paintings in the Church of Alexander Nevsky in Abastuman, Georgia  (1899-1904).

Above:  The Great Taking of the Veil by Nesterov, 1897-98. Oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Nesterov’s works were also favored by the Imperial family for their modern but romantic style, and he executed several works for them, including the famous “Annunciation” in the collection of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.

In 1908, along with architect Sergei Schusev[viii], and fellow artists Sergei Konenkov[ix] and Pavel Korin[x], Nesterov was selected to join in the design of the church, convent, and other compound buildings of the Marfo-Mariinskii Obitel’ (Convent of Martha and Mary) founded by the Grand Duchess Elizabeth.

Elizaveta Feodorovna founded the convent along the model of medieval German service cloisters, in which the sisters were not “behind walls” but were active at the convent and beyond.  Though there was initial resistance from the Orthodox Church, the Convent soon proved to be an exceptional resource to the city of Moscow, and long established rules were waived in the convent’s favor.

Long active in the world of the arts in St. Petersburg and Moscow, Elizaveta Feodorovna looked to Orthodoxy’s conservative Novgorodian past as an aesthetic source, but selected artists who were able to use that taste as a framework for a completely 20^th century gesamtkunstwerk which included 14^th century icons, as well as electric light and the most modern construction techniques.

After 1909, he spent the rest of his life in Moscow, working largely at the Martha and Mary Convent.  The works for the convent in the church and the various chapels and areas of the compound are arguably his largest extant surviving work, and have been restored since 2008, generating great interest in the work of this important artist.

A devout Orthodox Christian, Vasnetsov refused to accept the Bolshevik Revolution, but remained in Russia.

After the revolution, Nesterov retreated from the world and painted no new religious works in fear of the Bolshevik and Communist governments.  In his “Soviet” period, Nesterov painted portraits, mostly of his colleagues, including Ivan Shadr, Vera Mukhina, Sergei Iudin, and Ivan Pavlov.

Nicholas Nicholson

Nicholson Art Advisory