IVANOV, ALEKSANDR ANDREEVIČ. - Russian painter, b. 28 July 1806 in Pietroburgo, d. there 15 July 1858. He developed his art according to the principles of the Academy of Pietroburgo. He visited Dresda, Monaco, Firenze, and Roma. In Roma he associated with the group of the “Nazarenes.” He sought to blend elements taken from life with those inspired by the old masters.
In his great painting The Appearance of Christ to the People (1833–55), which is in Mosca, he attempted to idealize the forms further, infusing them with the profound religious spirit of the primitives, and succeeded in creating a truly monumental work, in which the highest moral and religious values of humanity are concentrated. The composition of this work entailed hundreds of studies and sketches, now dispersed among the various galleries of Mosca and Pietroburgo. Almost at the end of his life he executed a series of studies on sacred history, creating one of the most brilliant illustrations of the Bible. He also illustrated David Strauss’s famous volume La vita di Gesù, making use of his archaeological knowledge of the Eastern world. Some of his pictorial expressions seem to anticipate later times; he left no school, since he always lived abroad. His works are found chiefly in the Museo Rumiantzev and the Galleria Tretiakov in Mosca, in the Museo russo in Leningrado, and in the Museo Radiscev in Saratov.