Art Chowder January | February 2018, Issue 13 | Page 35

Ivan Nikolayevich Kramskoi (1837- 1887)
A
Ivan Nikolayevich Kramskoi (1837-1887)
Portrait of Maria Fyodorovna
1881
oil on canvas
42.9 x 29.1”
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
Maria Feodorovna (1847-1928), born Princess Dagmar
of Denmark, was Empress of Russia, the wife of Tsar
Alexander III, and the mother of Tsar Nicholas II.
Ivan Nikolayevich Kramskoi (1837-1887)
t the Second Exhibition, also held at
Christ in the Wilderness
1872
the Academy the following year, Kramskoi
oil on canvas
showed a non-Russian subject with his
72.44 х 84.25”
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
powerful Realist composition of Christ in
the Desert, derived from the story of the
Temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. According to the texts, Jesus was led to
the desert after his baptism to fast for forty days and be tested by the devil. With
profound psychological penetration, the artist conveys a sense that the battle of
Jesus with the flesh and the devil was an internal one.
Both of these paintings were purchased by successful Moscow merchant Pavel
Tretyakov, one of the major collectors of Russian art at the time. One of the major
problems facing Russian artists was the fact that there really were no art dealers
and commercial galleries, such as began to emerge in Paris in the later 1800s. As it
turned out, Kramskoi largely supported himself with portraiture.
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