Mikhail Wassiljewitsch Nesterow

Mikhail Nesterov. A portrait by Viktor Vasnetsov

Mikhail Wassiljewitsch Nesterow ( Russian Михаил Васильевич Нестеров , scientific transliteration Michail Vasil'evič Nesterov ; * May 19 ^July / May 31,  1862 ^greg. In Ufa ; † October 18, 1942 in Moscow ) was a Russian painter and a member of the Peredvizhniki . He was an important exponent of religious symbolism in Russian painting.

Raised in the educated family of a businessman, he was already painting while attending high school in Ufa. After graduating from high school in 1874, he went to Moscow, initially to attend a general college. From 1877 to 1881 and from 1884 to 1886 he studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture . Here he was a student of Vasily Grigorjewitsch Perow , Alexei Kondratjewitsch Sawrassow and Illarion Michailowitsch Prjanischnikow . In the period from 1881 to 1884 he studied at the Petersburg Art Academy ; here with Pavel Petrovich Tschistjakow .

From 1889 he took part in the activities of the Peredwischniki before becoming a member of this movement himself in 1896. In the early days he was best known as a landscape painter . Over time, however, he increasingly devoted himself to religious motifs in his works, which led to conflicts with the Peredwischniki. In the period from 1890 to 1910 Nesterow lived and worked primarily in Kiev and Saint Petersburg . It was during this period that the frescoes of the Kiev Cathedral and the mosaics of the Church of the Resurrection in Saint Petersburg were designed. He also dealt with icon painting .

After the October Revolution , Nesterow mainly created portraits . He portrayed a number of personalities from culture and science. Nesterov died in Moscow in 1942. His grave is in the Novodevitshi cemetery.

Most of his works can now be seen in the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery ; some are privately owned.

Works (selection)

• The Bride of Christ (1897)
• The Hermit (Пустынник) (1889)
• The vision of the boy Bartholomew (Видение отроку Варфоломею) (1889)
• The ringing of bells (Под благовест) (1895)
• On the mountains (На горах) (1896)
• The Works of Saint Sergei (Труды преподобного Сергия) (1896)
• The Youth of Saint Sergei (Юность преподобного Сергия) (1897)
• The great consecration of nuns (Великий постриг) (1897)
• Portrait Study of Young Gorky (1901)
• Portrait of EP Nesterowa (Е. П. Нестерова) (1905)
• Beyond the Volga (1905)
• Holy Russia (Святая Русь) (1906)
• Autumn Landscape (1906)
• Philosophers (Философы) (1917)
• Portrait of IP Pavlov (1935)
• Autumn in the village (Осень в деревне) (1942)

Web links

Commons : Michail Nesterow  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Michail Wassiljewitsch Nesterow in the catalog of the German National Library
• Information about the artist and his works (Russian)