Mikhail Nesterov

Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov
Portrait by Viktor Vasnetsov
Born	31 May 1862 Ufa, Russian Empire
Died	18 October 1942(1942-10-18) (aged 80) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Education	Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Imperial Academy of Arts
Known for	Painter
Movement	Russian Symbolism

Mikhail Vasilyevich Nesterov (Russian: Михаи́л Васи́льевич Не́стеров; 31 May [O.S. 19 May] 1862 – 18 October 1942) was a major representative of religious Symbolism in Russian art.

Biography

Mikhail Nesterov was a pupil of Pavel Chistyakov 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 Sergei Radonezhsky, is often considered to be the earliest example of the Russian Symbolist style.

From 1890 to 1910, Nesterov lived in Kiev and Saint 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 Derzhinskaya, Otto Schmidt, and Vera Mukhina, among others.

Gallery

• 
  Holy Rus, 1901-06

In Rus. The Soul of the People. The last religious symbolic painting Nesterov painted before the revolution. The picture depicts the Russian people following a young boy, while in the background a Russian religious figure, an old holy fool, stays aside, praying ecstatically, wearing no clothes and possibly warning the people.

• 
  Crucifixion, 1912
• 
  Taking the Veil, 1897-98
• 
  The Love Potion, 1888
• 
  The Vision to the Youth Bartholomew, 1889-1890
• 
  Beyond the Volga, 1905
• 
  Philosophers, 1917 (Depicts theologians Pavel Florensky and Sergei Bulgakov.)
• 
  Tolstoy, 1906 (Depicts Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy at his home in Moscow.)
• 
  Three old men with a fox, 1914

See also

• List of Russian artists

External links

• Media related to Mikhail Nesterov at Wikimedia Commons
• Detailed biography Template:Ru icon
• Online Nesterov gallery Template:En icon