There are two versions of the picture “Crucifixion”. Both options made a depressing impression on the audience. The depth of despair of the last moments of Christ’s earthly life and His martyrdom, when the body hung limp on the cross, and the features of the face still distorted the death throes and the last cry of pain, left no one indifferent. Ge painting in this work is extremely expressive and shockingly expressive. The main visual technique here is a sharp contrast of light and shadow.
The fate of the Crucifixion is dramatic. The prolonged disgrace of the paintings of the “Passionate Cycle” led to the artist’s son leaving Russia in 1899, taking with him several works of his father, many sketches and both versions of the Crucifixion. Until 1952 they were kept in the same castle near Geneva, but after the death of his mistress were sold and fell into unknown hands. The first option was lucky to be in the Parisian museum d’Orsay, and in the spring of 2006 the Crucifixion was exhibited in the hall of the State Tretyakov Gallery, along with other works of the Passionate Cycle.
After the exhibition, the canvas returned to Paris. The second version surfaced from non-existence in the twentieth century and was proposed by a private Swiss collector to the Ministry of Culture of the USSR. There was a refusal to purchase this masterpiece, and the picture again sank into oblivion. Since then, her location, as well as the fate of many other works of the painter, taken to Switzerland, remains unknown.
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)