Mikhail Nesterov

(b Ufa [now in Bashkirskaya Republic of Russia], 31 May 1862; d Moscow, 18 Oct 1942). Russian painter. From 1877 to 1881 and again from 1884 to 1886 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture under the Realist painters Vasily Perov and Illarion Pryanishnikov. Between 1881 and 1884 he worked under Pavel Chistyakov (1832-1919) at the Academy of Arts, St Petersburg. At the estate of Savva Mamontov at Abramtsevo he met the most influential painters of the period, then at the epicentre of the development of Russian Art Nouveau. Nesterov sought to combine this style with a deep Orthodox belief; however, in his desire to revive religious art he was influenced more by French Symbolism, particularly by Bastien-Lepage, than by old Russian icon painting. All of Nesterov's canvases are marked by a lyrical synthesis between the figures and their landscape surroundings, as in Hermit (1888-9; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.), which shows the stooped figure of an old man against a northern landscape of stunted trees and still water. The large oil painting Vision of Young Bartholomew (1889-90; Moscow, Tret'yakov Gal.) depicts the legend of the childhood of the Russian saint Sergey of Radonezh. A monk appears to the young Bartholomew (the future St Sergius) and prophesies a glorious future for him. The simplified outlines and muted colours of the Abramtsevo landscape recall the works of the French artist Puvis de Chavannes, which Nesterov saw on a trip to Paris in 1889.

See the Abbreviations for further details.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov
Portrait by Viktor Vasnetsov
Born	31 May 1862 Ufa
Died	18 October 1942 Moscow
Field	Painter
Training	Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Imperial Academy of Arts
Movement	Russian Symbolism

Nesterov during the 1900s

Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov (Russian: Михаи́л Васи́льевич Не́стеров; May 31 [O.S. May 19] 1862, Ufa – 18 October 1942, Moscow) was a leading representative of religious Symbolism in Russian art. He studied under Pavel Tchistyakov at the Imperial Academy of Arts, but later allied himself with the group of artists known as the Peredvizhniki. His canvas The Vision of the Youth Bartholomew (1890–91), depicting the conversion of medieval Russian saint Sergii Radonezhsky, is often considered to mark the inauguration of the Russian Symbolist movement.

From 1890 to 1910, Nesterov lived in Kiev and St Petersburg, working on frescoes in St. Vladimir's Cathedral and the Church on Spilt Blood, respectively. After 1910, he spent the remainder of his life in Moscow, working in the Marfo-Mariinsky Convent. As a devout Orthodox Christian, he did not accept the Bolshevik Revolution but remained in Russia until his death, painting the portraits of Ivan Ilyin, Ivan Pavlov, Ksenia Derzhinskaia^[1], Otto Schmidt, and Vera Mukhina, among others.

Gallery

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mikhail Nesterov

The Vision of the Youth Bartholomew (1890–91)

Philosophers depicts Symbolist thinkers Pavel Florensky and Sergei Bulgakov

Notes

1. ^ Derzhinskaia Ksenia Georgievna (1889-1951), cousin of the musicologist Alexander Ossovsky and the composer Mykola Vilinsky, outstanding Russian singer, also professor at Moscow Conservatory (1947-51), was called "Golden Soprano of Bolshoi Theatre"[1], also see Sergei Rachmaninoff

External links

• Detailed biography (in Russian)
• Online Nesterov gallery (in English)

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