Klavdy Lebedev (1852-1916) did this oil study from a costumed model as a preparation for a larger painting.
I'm just guessing, but he probably did study on an oil-primed surface, and that he must have done a preliminary pencil drawing and laid in the tones fairly thinly.
Martha the Mayoress. Destruction of Novgorod by Ivan
by Klavdy Lebedev. 1889. Tretyakov Gallery.
T
he Destruction of Novgorod was "an act of vengeance against the perceived treason of the local Orthodox church, the massacre quickly became possibly the most vicious in the brutal legacy of the
oprichnina, with casualties in the tens of thousands and innumerable acts of extreme violent cruelty."
There is a fantastic version of this painting in the Chazen museum in Madison, Wisconsin. I have been to the Tretyakov as well and do not remember it there, though that does not mean Lebedev didn't make another version of the painting which is hanging there.
ReplyDeleteThe Chazen version (if there are multiple versions) is stunning -- the primary figures stand out as if they were in the room with you. "Photorealistic" does not begin to cover it. There were some really phenomenal 19th C. Russian painters whose names are relatively unknown to the west, as a visit to the Tretyakov will make plain.
Thanks for showing a study for this fantastic painting!
John Jacobsen (Instagram: @eigenhombre)
Chicago, IL, USA
So exciting to hear from someone who has seen the painting or a version of it. Someone said the signature on the sketch says "Repin" but I can't read Cyrillic script. If so, it might have been added later to try to pump up the value of the Lebedev study. Anyone know any more about this?
ReplyDeleteIf you Google Repin's other studies, the signature on the study matches.
ReplyDeleteThat fascinates me, because the figure is undoubtedly the same. Who was copying whom?
Yes, it does say Repin.
ReplyDeletePerhaps they both painted the same model, from different angles. For example Repin painted Sophia Dragomirova along with Valentin Serov.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very familiar with Russian painters but it's always so exciting to discover new-to-me artists.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the study, it seems to me there is a shadow in the dark halo around the head, where he may have had a larger profile or a different pose and used the halo to conceal the first try.
This Repin painting of a religious procession is absolutely stunning. It's heartbreaking; not a celebration or a parade but a grim march.
The effort of the bearers, the expression of the man with the whip and the man he's whipping, the old ladies struggling along with the icon, the disabled folks on the left being herded along by a massive soldier on a weary horse... and behind, stretching back for maybe a mile, more altars, more icons, a blur of tired people, in harsh sunlight, with all the trees chopped down. There's so much to see, but I can't zoom in too closely.
Knowing nothing about either the type of procession or the painter, I'd say Repin was incensed that there was so much pomp, and so much suffering in its wake.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Procesi%C3%B3n_de_Pascua_en_la_regi%C3%B3n_de_Kursk%2C_por_Ili%C3%A1_Repin.jpg