Viktor Vasnetsov

Nesterov's 1925 portrait of Viktor Vasnetsov, held at the Tretyakov Gallery, depicts one of the major figures of Russian Romantic and folk-inspired art — the painter who gave canonical visual form to the characters of Russian fairy tale and epic legend. Vasnetsov was in his late seventies at the time of the portrait, a venerated elder of Russian art, and Nesterov painted him with the same respectful depth of attention he had given to his portraits of religious figures and intellectuals. The two men were contemporaries and friends, both associated with the Moscow art world and with the religious and nationalist currents in Russian culture that had shaped the late Imperial period. The portrait is a record of a long artistic friendship as much as a document of Vasnetsov's appearance, and Nesterov brings to it the psychological intensity of his best portraiture.

Nesterov places Vasnetsov against a plain or simple background that gives maximum prominence to the elder painter's face. The handling is controlled and specific in the face, with careful attention to the quality of aged skin and the expression of contained spiritual energy. The simplicity of the composition — the portrait stripped to essentials — reflects Nesterov's mature portrait manner.