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# Bringing Ivanov’s “The Appearance of Christ” to Russia and to the Tretyakov Gallery
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/nad-kartinoi-iavlenie-khrista-narodu-aleksandr-ivanov-rabotal-dvadtsat-let-khotia-rasschityval-zakonchit-ee-za-vremia-italianskoi-stazhirovki/
- Published: 2023-04-15T18:54:32.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:09:40.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Art, Moscow, Museums, People

Alexander Ivanov worked on “The Appearance of Christ Before the People” for twenty years, although he had expected to finish it within the span of his Italian placement.

His close friend Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, incidentally portrayed in the painting as the figure nearest to Christ, wrote that “Ivanov has long since died to the whole of the rest of the world, save for his work. The canvas did indeed become the work of Ivanov's whole life, and he died soon after completing it.

The vast canvas could not be delivered to Russia: so costly was the carriage of an undivided painting measuring seven and a half metres by five metres forty centimetres that in the end the transport was paid for with the help of Yelena Pavlovna, wife of Grand Duke Mikhail Pavlovich.

Repin called The Appearance of Christ the most popular of Russian paintings, while Vasnetsov criticised it. When the canvas, wreathed in mysteries, arrived in Russia, the public split into two camps, and some refused altogether to acknowledge Ivanov's mastery and talent. The painting was bought by Emperor Alexander II, who at once presented it to the Rumyantsev Museum. In 1925 it was transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery, where a separate hall was built for it.