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20 years
- He has been called the master of one work, for it took 20 years to complete his magnum opus The Appearance of Christ Before the People.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Andreyevich_Ivanov
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He dreamed to create an epic painting of the Messiah coming to people, but first he decided to try himself on lesser-scale picture. In 1834–1835 he finished Appearance of Jesus Christ to Maria Magdalena. The painting had great success both in Rome and St. Petersburg.
He was constantly wandering in Roman suburbs working all day in the foothills and groves. Ivanov began to realise his dream, to create his main picture, in 1836. In fact, it was the work of his life – it took twenty years to create the version of the painting that we can see today.
Ivanov was to work on his most famous painting, The Appearance of Christ to the People (also known as The Appearance of the Messiah), for 20 years (1837–57), and throughout those years he did not leave Italy. Two months before his death he took the painting to St. Petersburg, where the Russian public saw it for the first time.
This enormous painting achieved European celebrity long before its completion, but it had a disappointing reception when it was finally exhibited in St Petersburg in 1858, its Raphaelesque composition being at odds with the naturalistic setting and details, based on hundreds of preparatory studies.
He has been called the master of one work, for it took 20 years to complete his magnum opus, The Appearance of Christ Before the People (1837–57), now in the Tretyakov Gallery at Moscow. Critical judgement about Ivanov improved in the following generation.
- Russian
- July 28, 1806
- Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
- July 15, 1858
When it did arrive, Ivanov's painting was first shown in the Winter Palace and later at the Academy of Arts. Simultaneously with "The Appearance of Messiah" visitors to the Winter Palace could view the gigantic battle canvas by the French artist Adolf Ivonne, "The Kulikov Battlefield", and that work practically overshadowed Ivanov's painting.
In 1835 he began to paint on a fairly large canvas (172х147 cm) and was close to its completion, but in 1837 he took another canvas, seven times more, and started to work on it. The previous version he used as a working sketch, with meticulously experienced it all something new that appeared on a large canvas.
