| Alexander Andreevich Ivanov (1806 - 1858), list of works |
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 | | Trained at the St. Petersburg Academy, where his father was an art professor, Alexander Andreevich Ivanov was recognized as a gifted artist from an early age. After joining a thriving émigré community in Rome, Ivanov allied himself with a reactionary movement which inculcated Classicism as the only true artistic style. It was perhaps that dogma which fueled his obsession with the idea of creating a masterpiece. As a result, he devoted nearly twenty years of research and hundreds of preliminary sketches to his colossal The Appearance of Christ before the People (1858), depicting the moment when John the Baptist glimpses Jesus Christ. However, this would-be masterpiece was thought to lack the fluidity and attention to light that made his early work so interesting - and would also enable him to recreate himself as a remarkably talented landscape artist later in life. |
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