1831 C 13 June [O.S. 1 June] 1894) was a Russian realist painter famous for his works on historical and religious motifs. Nikolai Ge was born in Voronezh to a Russian noble family of French origin. His grandfather emigrated to Russia in the 18th century. His parents died when he was still a child, so Nikolai was raised by his serf nurse. He graduated from the First Kiev Gymnasium and studied at the physics-mathematics department of Kiev University and Saint Petersburg University. In 1850 he gave up his career in science and entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. He studied in academy under the historical painter Pyotr Basin until 1857. He graduated from the academy in 1857 with a gold medal for his painting The Witch of Endor Calling Up the Spirit of the Prophet Samuel. According to Ge himself, during that period he was strongly influenced by Karl Brullov. His gold medal provided him a scholarship for studying abroad . He visited Germany, Switzerland, France and in 1860 settled in Italy. In Rome he met Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov who strongly influenced Ge. In 1861 Ge painted The Last Supper; in 1863 he took the painting with him to Saint Petersburg. Ge found his own interpretation of the classical subject ?? he emphasized the motif of discord among those who had formerly shared the same views. The painting (bought by Tsar Alexander II of Russia) made so strong impression that Ge was made a professor of Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1864 he returned to Florence where he became a friend of a major Russian pro-Western writer and thinker Alexander Herzen and painted his portrait. The same year he also painted Messengers of the Resurrection and the first version of the Christ on the Mount of Olives.  Related Paintings of Nikolai Ge :. | Christ praying in Gethsemane | Carrara | Alexander Herzen | Head of Jesus. Preparation for The Crucifixion. | Quod Est Veritas Christ and Pilate |
Related Artists:
John Ponsford
(1790- 1870 ) painted Portrait of a gentleman. Signed and dated Ponsford 1842
Friedrich August von Kaulbach
(2 June 1850, Hannover - 26 July 1920, Munich, Germany) was a German portraitist and historical painter. He was the son of Theodor Friedrich Wilhelm Christian Kaulbach (1822 - 1903), the court painter at Hannover, and the great nephew of Wilhelm Kaulbach, another prominent member of the Kaulbach family of artists. He learned to paint from his father, and later was a student of August von Kreling at Nuremberg. He sought to emulate the artist Hans Holbein.
Eero Jarnefelt
(8 November 1863 - 15 November 1937) was a Finnish realist painter. Eero Järnefelt was born in Viipuri, Finland. His father August Aleksander Järnefelt was an officer in the Russian army and his mother was Elisabeth Järnefelt. He studied at the St. Petersburg art academy between 1883 and 1885, the same school at which Albert Edelfelt had studied. Eero Järnefelt's sister Aino Järnefelt married composer Jean Sibelius in 1892, Eero Järnefelt's sisters and brothers were Kasper, Arvid, Aino Ellida, Ellen, Armas, Hilja and Sigrid. He went to study in Paris in 1886, where he became friends with Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Emil Wikström and Louis Sparre. He was inspired by the plein-air and naturalistic paintings of Jules Bastien-Lepage On a trip to Keuruu in 1889, he met actress Saimi Swan. They were married in 1890. His most famous painting is probably The Wage Slaves (Raatajat rahanalaiset or Kaski, from 1893, External link), depicting slash-and-burn agriculture.