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Alexander
Andreevich Ivanov was born in 1806 in St. Petersburg. His father, Andrey
Ivanov, was an artist, the professor of the Academy of Arts . It was his
father who first taught Alexander art, and since 1817 till 1824 he studied
in the Academy of Arts. One of his first notable works, made while in the
Academy, was Priam Asking Achilles to Return
Hector's Body (1824). For the picture Joseph
Interprets the Butler's and the Baker's Dreams in a Prison
(1827) he was awarded a Major Gold Medal by the Society for the Promotion
of Artists and sent to Italy as a pensioner of that society.
He went to Italy in 1830 and after 1831, settled in Rome. He travelled
all over Italy, studying the masterpieces of art. During his first years
he painted Apollo, Hyacinth and Cypariss Singing
and Playing Music (1831-1834) and The
Appearance of Christ to Mary Magdalene (1834-1836) which were
greatly appreciated by his contemporaries and approved of by his sponsors
in St. Petersburg. At about 1833 Ivanov conceived a plan to paint a large picture
The
Appearance of Christ to the People (1837-1857). This picture
truly became the work of his life, he worked on it for twenty years. Over
100 sketches, numerous detail drawings, and large-scale designs, most of
them in oil, preceded the monumental composition. Its size is 540 x 750
cm (18' x 25'). In the foreground of the picture there is a number of male
figures, some already undressed, awaiting to be baptized in the Jordan
River by John the Baptist. While John the Baptist, in his garb of animal
skin under a long mantle, a crosier in his left hand, turns and raises
his arms dramatically towards the lone figure of Christ, who appears on
a rocky rise in the middle ground, behind him a broad plain and distant
mountains.
Ivanov also painted several genre pictures such as Ave
Maria (1839), Bridegroom
Buying a Ring for His Fiancee (1839) and very beautiful landscape
studies: Olives Near Cemetery in Albano. New
Moon (1842-1846), A Tree Branch
(1840s-1850s), Via Appia (1845),
Water
and Stones Near Palacculo (1850s). In the 1850s, he conceived
another grandiose plan to paint a series of large frescos illustrating
the Bible, in a palace specially built for this purpose. In preparation
to this project he painted dozens of sketches in watercolour with various
scenes from the Bible. Ivanov died from cholera in St. Petersburg in 1858,
several month after his return to Russia.
Bibliography:
Russian Historical Painting. by M. Rakova. Moscow. Iskusstvo.
1979.
Alexander Ivanov. by M. Allenov. Moscow. 1980.
Paintings of the 18th-early 20th centuries from the Reserves of
the Russian Museum. by K. Mikhailova and G. Smirnov. Leningrad. 1982.
The
Art and Architecture of Russia (Pelican History Art) by George
Heard Hamilton. Yale Univ Pr, 1992.
A
Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Artists 1420-1970 by John
Milner. Antique Collectors' Club, 1993.