*NESTEROV, MIKHAIL (1862-1942) Wayfarers. Beyond the Volga, signed and dated 1922. Oil on canvas, 81.5 by 107.5 cm. Provenance:Private collection, Europe. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the experts A. Gusarova and L. Gladkova. Authenticity has also been confirmed by the experts S. Rimskaya-Korsakova, P. Klimov and A. Nizamutdinova. Exhibited:Mikhail Nesterov, The State Russian Museum, St Petersburg, 5 April-30 July 2012. Literature:E. Petret al., Mikhail Nesterov, St Petersburg, Palace Editions, 2012, pp. 192-193, pl. 202, illustrated and listed. P. Klimo, Mikhail Nesterov, St Petersburg, Zolotoi vek, 2008, pl. 133, illustrated; p. 470, listed. E. MalininMikhail Nesterov, Moscow, Belyi gorod, 2008, p. 43, illustrated. Related Literature:For similar works, see A. Mikhailov,Mikhail Nesterov, Moscow, Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1958, pp. 292, 482. V. FialRusskaya zhivopis' v sobraniyakh Chekhoslovakii, Leningrad, Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1974, p. 106. A. GusarovMikhail Nesterov, Moscow, Belyi gorod, 2000, p. 38. The canvas here at auction,Wayfarers. Beyond the Volga, undoubtedly represents the peak of Mikhail Nesterov's mature oeuvre. It was painted in 1922 as a development of his famousWanderercompositions that are now the pride of the Tretyakov and Tver Art Galleries. These canvasses were a summation of the artist's earthly quest to find an image for the Russian Christ. The first two versions ofWayfarer, painted in 1921, are compositionally similar. Christ is depicted with his travelling companion in the middle of a field. In one he is with a peasant, in the other with a young lad reminiscent of the boy inSoul of the People. They are greeted by a woman bowing from the waist. Nothing directly indicates that the person before us is Christ: he is dressed in a long robe and bast shoes like a simple traveller. Yet there is no doubt this is Jesus. In the figure of the wayfarer, whose fine facial features, expressive hands and emaciated arms have a spiritual look, Nesterov conveys both benevolence and an element of tragedy, the inner nobility and gravitas that must be present in the divine image. Nesterov's model for his wayfarer, and the prophet in the picture of the same name, was the Armavir priest Father Leonid Fyodorovich Dmitrievsky, whose spiritual discipline and expressive appearance attracted the artist's attention. Nesterov had met him in 1918, when for fear of disturbances and hunger in the capitals, he spent two years in Kuban. After Nesterov returned to Moscow he kept up a correspondence with the Armavir priest over many years, and in 1938 even took care of the persecuted Dmitrievsky on his return home from exile in Kargopol. Nesterov habitually repeated the motifs he loved and attached importance to. Accordingly, in the wake of the firstWayfarersa version appeared, now in the Tretyakov Gallery, which presents the image of Christ rendered in a traditional way. In Nesterov's conception his wayfarer is a solitary wanderer whom people do not understand, a man of sorrows and sufferings. The gloomy Volga landscape adds to the feeling of Christ's wrenching loneliness on his way through the world, watched by motionless, silent peasants. But this image of Christ the Wayfarer probably failed to satisfy Nesterov, which may be why in this version, his next, he returned to his original interpretation, depicting Christ as a simple pilgrim. The idea of a quest for God was always one of the central themes in Nesterov's oeuvre, to which he devoted his major works - the paintingsHoly RusandThe Way to Christ, showing Russian people seeking God and finding Him in various ways, the painted decoration in the Church of the House of Martha and Mary and, lastly, the monumental canvasSoul of the People. His cycle of paintings from the 1920s epitomises his search for God revealed and the crowning jewel of this body of work is the piece here at auction. We are grateful to the great-granddaughter of Father Leonid Dmitrievsky I.V. Pogorelova for providing additional catalogue information.