The absolute sensation of the "russian week" will be two canvases by vasily polenov from the cycle "from the life of christ". Both paintings have appeared on the art market for the first time in the last hundred years. Of the seventy-two reliably known compositions of the cycle, most have long adorned the collections of the largest museums in russia, and only a few have been sold to private collections. The canvas "christ and mary magdalene" (estimated at 360,000-500,000) is the result of 40 years of work by the artist on the image of the earthly life of the savior. This is, in essence, the creative testament of the master. Throughout his life, polenov returned to the development of the plot of the earthly path of the messiah, and the theme of the relationship between the savior and the female characters of the new testament becomes one of the cornerstones of the artist's work. Polenov himself described the plot of the painting "christ and mary magdalene" as follows: "mary is sitting at the entrance to the dwelling, christ approached her with a staff, placed his hand on her head, and she fixed her gaze on him" (polenov archive, or gtg, f. 54). Before us in the painting is the moment of the expulsion of demons from mary, the moment of the transformation of the human spirit, essentially the moment of the salvation of the human soul. That is, an attempt by the great artist to capture on canvas the miracle of faith, and a miracle that occurs without witnesses: only nature sees it. According to some art historians, the image of christ in this painting is one of the most powerful in polenov's work. It is no coincidence that the second version of the work known to us was in the collection of alexander men. Object Type: painting. Date: 19th century. Dimensions: height: 141.5 cm (55.7 in); width: 89 cm (35 in). Medium: oil on canvas. Collection: Частное собрание. Jesus and Mary Magdalene by V.Polenov
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