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signed in Cyrillic l.r.

oil on canvas

EXHIBITED

V.D.Polenov, 79 Výstava, Topièuv Salon, Prague, 1910, Cat. No. 29
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Ex. Cat. V.D.Polenov, 79 Výstava, Topièuv Salon, Prague, 1910, Cat. No. 29

V.Fiala, V.D.Polenov, Bratislava: Slovenske vydavatel stro krasnej literatury, 1956, p153, ill. plate 45, p95

E.Paston, Vasilii Polenov, Moscow: Belyi gorod, 2000, p36

E.Paston, Vasilii Polenov, St. Petersburg: Aurora, 1991, p92
CATALOGUE NOTE

The Samaritan Woman is an important work from a cycle of over 60 paintings called Scenes from the Life of Christ. The forty year evolution of this Evangel'skii krug, charts Vasilii Polenov's search for a theme to his oeuvre as a whole.

Polenov's religious painting should be viewed within the context of a trend among Academicians to represent historically realistic scenes from the Bible. Examples of such works are Nikolai Ge's Last Supper (1863), Kramskoy's Christ in the Wilderness (1872) and the epic painting which inspired Polenov to embark on the cycle, Ivanov's The Appearance of Christ to the People (1837-1858) (Fig. 1) (Paston: 2000, p30).

Heavily influenced by the plein-air approach he had adopted during his studies in Paris, Polenov undertook a trip to Greece, Egypt and Palestine in 1881-2. This period of intense outdoor sketching stimulated a heightened sense of light and air in his work. His palette assumed a new freshness, the vivid colours suggesting the oppressive heat of the Middle Eastern landscape.

Perhaps the most renowned work in the cycle is Christ with the Adulteress (1887-8) (Fig 2). Polenov meticulously researched every visual detail so as to provide the subject with a credible historical setting and sketches reveal that head of Christ was based on studies of Polenov's students, Konstantin Korovin and Isaac Levitan. However, Polenov remained deeply unsatisfied with the overall composition, believing that the level of realism stifled the ideological sub-text and was prompted to return to the Middle East in the late 1890s to explore the theme of Christ's path in the landscape.

The author of the leading monograph on Polenov has dated the offered work as executed in the early 1900s (Paston: 1991, p92). It depicts the teaching of Christ to a Samaritan Woman, that whoever drinks the living water He offers will never thirst again, for it will become inside them a spring of water welling up from eternal life. (John 5:14)

In terms of its composition, the picture is closer to Dreams (1900s) (Fig 3). The Palestinian landscape has been reduced to its bare minimum, its main features rendered in loose, painterly brushstrokes. But the figure of Christ does not overpower the scene and seems to exist in symbiosis with the landscape. On seeing the completed cycle in 1908, Vladimir Makovsky, remarked to Polenov's sister that the depiction of Christ was visibly linked to the beauty of nature. (E.Sakharova, V.D.Polenov; pisma, dnevniki, vospominaniya, Moskva: Isskustva, 1950, p350)

Every element of the work underpins the concept of harmony: the unified tonality and colour, the perfectly balanced composition and the relationship between the figure of Christ and His surroundings.

Polenov's ethical sensitivity and belief in the moral strength of Christ's teachings was a humanitarian ideology popular with the intelligentsia of the time, particularly after the failed 1905 revolution. The emotional symbolism of Polenov's later religious works can be seen as precursors to the famous 'landscapes of mood' of his student, Isaac Levitan