[Кирилл Сызранский]

From 25 October to 7 November at the Tretyakov Gallery in the pre-auction exhibition Russian Trading Auction House Bonhams is the screening of two masterpieces of famous Russian artist Polenov (1844 - 1927), "guilty of death" (1906. H, m, 113h221) and "Who among you is without sin" (1908. H, m, 118h239). Both paintings are committed to performance include a reference to the works of masters of the 1900s. These works are a series of paintings "From the Life of Christ", consisting of sixty paintings and is the result of years of work and reflection on the Gospel stories of the painter.
[SPOILER]Even as a young man under the influence of the grand canvases of Alexander Ivanov, "The Appearance of Christ to the people" (1837-1857. TG) in VDPolenov conceived dream to become a follower of the great artist, and " Christ not only to create the future, but came into the world and made their way among the people. "

Wanting to "discover the historical truth", Polenov for "authenticity" of the situation in which there were events related to the life of Christ, made in 1881-1882 during his first trip to Egypt, Syria, Palestine, called in Greece. The artist has written numerous studies, studying the terrain, the types of people, architectural structures.

In 1887, Polenov completed work on the painting "Christ and the Sinner" (RM). A broad resonance, mass reviews in the press and interested viewers have strengthened the artist in mind to continue working on the theme of the Gospel, and he conceived a series of paintings "From the Life of Christ." "To my great joy, - wrote Polenov - many have understood what I meant, and responded with compassion. It gives me more courage to speak, how have the strength ...".

Direct work on the series began in 1899 when Polenov made his second trip to the East to collect the material. He brought with him from travel as well as after the first trip, basically, landscape studies, which have been separately shown in the 1903 traveling exhibition and made a strong impression of "freshness" and "force in the paint."

One of the central works of the series "From the Life of Christ" was the picture of "Who among you is without sin" (1908) - Option paintings, "Christ and the Sinner." Making the repetition, the artist is not simply reduced the size of the picture, but retaining the basic compositional structure, changed the structure of its individual parts and colors of the canvas.

Painting "is guilty of death" is devoted to the dramatic events associated with the court council, on which the house of Caiaphas the high priest gathered the elders led them to find the accusations against Christ. This is perhaps the only picture of the series, in which there is no image of nature as such, but the window is visible moonlight, interrupted by the bright lights of chandeliers and hanging lamps. Using different sources of light emphasizes a sense of tension and drama.

Both paintings are a part of the ambitious objectives set by the VA Polenov - to present the historical character of the Gospel events, to give a "living image" of Christ, "as it was in fact" and show "the greatness of this man."

In 1908, work VDPolenov on the paintings of the Gospel Series, which he considered "the main work of his life" was over. The paintings were shown in St. Petersburg, Moscow and other cities. Trade shows were a great success. In the same year the artist, wanting more and more people got acquainted with a series of works "From the Life of Christ", an album with pictures of photoengraving, which was highly appreciated by Leo Tolstoy.

In 1924, the exhibition of Russian art in New York was represented by 12 paintings in this series, which included "Who among you is without sin" and "guilty of death." The exhibition of their acquired American industrialist, philanthropist and diplomat, the Russian art lover Charles R. Crane, who gave then the picture to one of North American universities, in whose collection they were stored until recently. Disappeared from view local researchers and collectors of almost 80 years, these masterpieces of Russian art ever considered lost to Russian culture.

The activities of the auction houses of Europe and America is making a significant contribution to the popularization of Russian art in the West.

Feature of this display paintings VDPolenov in the Tretyakov Gallery is that the paintings will be exhibited alongside other works by the artist in his monograph in the permanent exhibition hall. This allows a more complete picture of the work the master.