Portrait of the artists wife Anna Petrovna

Portrait of the Artist's Wife Anna Petrovna, dated 1858 and in the Kiev National Picture Gallery, is one of Ge's earliest known portraits and documents his relationship with Anna Zabela, whom he married in 1857. The 1858 date places this at the very beginning of Ge's professional career — he had only recently completed his studies at the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg and was about to embark for Italy. A portrait of one's new wife at the outset of a career is simultaneously a private act of affection and a professional demonstration: proof that the young artist could achieve a convincing likeness. The Kiev National Picture Gallery's holding of this early work connects it to the Ukrainian dimension of Ge's biography — he would later live on his Ukrainian farm and identify with Ukrainian as well as Russian cultural life.

Oil on canvas, the portrait reflects the academic style of a young but well-trained painter. The handling is more conventional than Ge's later work — smooth modelling, careful attention to the face and dress, a composed setting. The young woman's face is rendered with the attentive affection of a husband-painter observing a familiar subject, which gives the work a warmth that distinguishes it from the more dispassionate objectivity of formal commissions.