Vasilii Dmitrievich Polenov

(Russian, 1844-1927)

'There were also women looking from afar off', 1908 105 x 167cm (41 1/2 x 66in).

Footnotes

Provenance
Part of the series of paintings The Life of Christ completed by the artist in late 1890-1900s.
Acquired by the American industrialist and diplomat Charles R. Crane from the exhibition of nine paintings from the Life of Christ series at the Russian Art Exhibition, Grand Central Palace, New York, 1924.
By descent to his daughter, Ellen Douglas Bruce Crane Fisher (1913-2000).
Presented by the above to a North American institution, early 1950s.

Exhibited
New York, Grand Central Palace,The Russian Art Exhibition, 1924, no. 632.
Moscow, Museum of Russian Impressionism, Other Shores. Russian Art in New York. 1924, 16 September 2021 - 16 January 2022, listed in catalogue only.

Literature
Catalogue for Other Shores. Russian Art in New York. 1924, Museum of Russian Impressionism, Moscow, 2021.

In New York, 1924, at the Grand Palace Hotel, from 8th March to 20th April, an exhibition of Russian art was held and was considered a great success, impressing the American public with the achievements of Russian painting. Consisting of about a thousand works by a hundred contemporary artists, the exhibition reflected the diversity of Russian fine art of the late 19th - first quarter of the 20th century and was a commercial venture, with the paintings being available for purchase. V.D. Polenov provided 12 works from the series of paintings From the Life of Christ as well as the canvas Genisaret Lake. One of the exhibition's organisers, I.E. Grabar, wrote: 'The undoubted success that our exhibition has in New York is much more pronounced and notable than the success of the famous Diaghilev exhibition in the Autumn Salon of 1905. I am qualified to say this, because I took a close part in the creation of both.'¹

Polenov 'left behind' a very significant piece of his work in America. A particular haul of his paintings was acquired at the exhibition by Charles Crane, a well-known patron of the arts, Russian art collector, industrialist, banker and diplomat, who was on the board of trustees of the exhibition. Among them are the paintings He That is Without Sin and He is Guilty of Death, presented by Crane in the same year to a famous North American educational institution, as well as the paintings There Were Also Women Looking From Afar Off and And She Went and Told Them That She Had Been with Him as They Mourned and Wept which were absorbed into the collection of an American institution.

The history of V.D. Polenov's creation of paintings of Gospel scenes spans several decades of his artistic life. Inviting Sofia Andreevna Tolstoy to visit his studio in Moscow, the artist wrote to her in 1908: 'I am very happy to show you my paintings from the life of Christ, my "Gospel Circle", as I call them. I've been working on them for about forty years... I'll ask you... to look at a job I've devoted almost my entire life to'²

The subject of the Gospel was consistent with Polenov's desire to show the moral power and triumph of those humanistic ideas that Christ brought to people, their beauty and truth. The greatest influence on the artist in his interpretation of the Gospels was Ernest Renan's book The Life of Jesus. As Renan did, Polenov perceived Christ as an historical figure and wanted to 'search for historical truth', believing that it was necessary 'in art to give this living image as it really was.'³

To recreate the 'authenticity' of the events related to the life of Christ, Polenov travelled to Egypt, Syria and Palestine in 1881-1882, stopping in Greece on the way. Direct work on the paintings, however, began in 1899 when the artist made a second trip to the East to collect material.

The events in the paintings of the first five parts of the series: Dreams (1894), I Went to a Highland Country(1900), Instruction to the Disciples, Rising Early in the Morning, Baptized by Him, The Samaritan Woman (1900s) and others, take place in landscapes flooded with bright sunshine with the sky a clear azure, distant blue mountains and blue rivers set against the background of bright green trees, often illuminated by the purple-pink reflections of the pre-evening sun. Sometimes architecture appears in the landscape, also perfectly beautiful and majestic, as in Matthew the Apostle. In other paintings, the action takes place in a courtyard flooded with bright sun: Full of Wisdom, At the House of Mary and Martha. The peaceful atmosphere in a perfectly beautiful country, the harmony of human relations among the harmony of nature is the theme of almost all of these works.

The brightness of the colour in the paintings of the Gospel cycle was indicative not only of the artist's desire to express the true radiance of the oriental landscape, but also to convey the reality, the very atmosphere in which Christ lived and worked.

Inspired throughout his life by the need to educate people with art, and the beauty and harmony contained within it, in the cycle of paintings From the Life of Christ, Polenov conjured the 'patriarchal golden age' of Galilee, where people immersed in the beautiful world of nature achieve the acme of the soul: they are wise and not vain.

By 1908, work on the paintings of the Gospel series, which Polenov termed 'his life's work', was completed, and 58 paintings were exhibited in 1909 in St. Petersburg, and then 64 paintings exhibited in Moscow and other cities. The exhibitions enjoyed great success with the public and were reported widely in the press. The 'heightened mood' that possessed the artist during the creative process was transferred to the audience.⁴

Desiring as many people as possible become acquainted with his series From the Life of Christ, in 1908 Polenov published an album with phototypes. (This, the first album of black-and-white photographs, designed by DV Polenov, the artist's son, consisted of 72 reproductions of Polenov's works). He sent one of them to Leo Tolstoy, who wrote in response: 'Your album made a strong impression on me. I imagine how the exhibition itself would have appeared, and I deeply, deeply regret that I cannot see it... Not to mention the beauty of the paintings and your wholly sympathetic attitude to the subject, the monumental work which you have put into this series evokes deep respect for the artist.'⁵

During preparation for the exhibition From the Life of Christ, Polenov compiled a description of the subjects of his works in the order in which they hung at the exhibition, for assertion of the rights of artistic property. (Case of the Office of the Imperial Academy of Arts. On the approval of various persons and institutions in the rights of artistic property. Started January 22, 1909, completed January 18, 1910. RGIA. Fund 789, op.13, d.51). In the description of the painting There Were Also Women Looking From Afar Off (They Ascended Calvary) it is written: 'In section 6, under No. 46 They Ascended Calvary (according to catalogue No. 51). In the foreground is the road descending downwards; on both sides there is a stone wall; on the road, the apostles Andrew and John, Mary and Salome stand with their backs to the viewer, and on the left at the corner of the wall, leaning on the edge, stands Mary Magdalene in a black robe. To the right of the wall of Jerusalem, in the centre of the picture, Calvary is visible in the distance, onto which people and the soldiers are leading the convicts. Matthew. 27, 33, 53; Mark. 15, 22, 40; Luke 23, 43; John 19,17'.⁶

In the painting, Polenov depicts events according to the Gospel of Mark: 'There were also women who watched from afar: among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joseph, and Salome. In Galilee these women had followed Him and cared for His needs. Many other women who had come up with Him to Jerusalem were also there.' (Mark 15: 40–41).

It is worth noting that the painting There Were Also Women Looking From Afar Off in the list of Polenov's works (until 1903 the list was compiled by the artist himself and thereafter by his son Dmitry Vasilyevich) has two names: number 804 is a painting called They Ascended Calvary, and number 804 bis is the painting There Were Also Women Looking From Afar Off, although, judging by the description in an archival document (O. Zemlyakova, V. Leonidov, 'Triumph in America. Russian art. No. 1', 2004. p.33), the picture depicts the same subject. Occasionally in the title of the work both names are combined.

In the present work, mournful figures in the dark robes of Christ's disciples and companions contrast with a perfectly harmonious nature. Their condition is echoed only by the sky covered with grey clouds, enveloping the whole scene with its smooth silvery-pearl light.

Polenov described the Gospel as 'a warm and joyful refuge for the human soul'⁷ and, to the best of his ability, sought to fill the paintings of the Gospel cycle with this sentiment. Yet it was sometimes difficult and sometimes impossible for the artist to convey his thoughts and feelings by means of fine art alone, and at the same time Polenov was working on the manuscript Jesus of Galilee - a collection of four canonical Gospels - as well as on a literary and scientific work, an explanation for the painting Among the Teachers. As Polenov wrote in his 'artistic testament', 'Working on the Gospel cycle in both image and word, I tried to convey my mood and sounds.'⁸ Among other musical works, he created the spiritual musical compositions Vigil and Liturgy, which are still performed in the Trinity Church of the village of Byokhovo, built in 1906 according to Polenov's design and mostly at his expense. (The manuscripts held in the Museum-Reserve of V.D. Polenov).

The present painting is part of the monumental task set by Polenov in the series of paintings From the Life of Christ to present the historical nature of the Gospel events, to give a 'living image' of Christ, 'as He really was' and to show 'the greatness of this man.'⁹ Polenov's Gospel Cycle fully expressed the artist's belief in the educational role of art, such that 'the power of art is so great that, in the end, it will humanize a person, and that the need for violence, rape, bloodshed, and with it the domination of brute force, pillage and war will disappear'. The central image of this power for the artist was Christ, the Gospel word.

¹Igor Grabar, Letters 1917 – 1941, 'Nauka' Moscow, 1977, p119.
²Sakharova E.V., V.D.Polenov, E.D.Polenova. The chronicle of a family of artists, Iskusstvo, Moscow, 1964. p.661.
³Sakharova, E.V., p. 619.
⁴V.D.Polenov. 'My artistic testament', May 1906. Department of Manuscripts of the Tretyakov Gallery. Fund 54. Ed. Khr., 28. L.1, published in: Vasily Dmitrievich Polenov. On 150th anniversary of his birth, Catalogue of the exhibition. Moscow, 1994. p. 25.
⁵Sakharova E.V, (op. cit.) p. 40.
⁶Sakharova E.V., p. 54.
⁷Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, F. 2066. Op.1. Unit 209. p. 20.
⁸V.D. Polenov,My artistic testament , p. 26.
⁹Sakharova E.V., (op. cit.) p. 619.

We are greatful to Eleanora Paston, Doctor of Art History, for compiling this catalogue note.