Nikolai Andreyevich Koshelev (1840-1918)

The lack of material resources did not allow a child a future professor of the Academy of Fine Arts Nikolai Andreyevich Koshelev go to art school of Academician AV Stupin, which was opened in the city of Arzamas. Instead, eleven, who yearned to draw boy was given into the service initially to a single artist, then to the other - both cases apprenticeship failed. And it was to land at the Nizhny Novgorod on a single artist-craftsman more nor take part in the fate of Nikolai Koshelev local landowner. Three years the young man lived in her family for three years and worked tirelessly, almost independently mastering the subtleties of painting technique. After a trip to the benefactor in the Kazan Art School, where budding young Koshelev got some lessons depiction of a professional instructor. This was followed by individual work on the painting of the iconostasis of the church and monastery walls, and finally, a trip to St. Petersburg and admission to the Academy of Fine Arts (1861).

The first years of teaching Koshelev just misery and weeks was in a half-starved condition. In spite of this, the thirst for creativity made him go ahead - for the 1862 student Koshelev received three silver medals. And in 1863 it was purchased a few of his works, which finally improved the financial situation of the artist.

Since 1865, NA Koshelev for several years working on the murals of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. It was for this work, he became an academician (1873) and professor (1878) of the Academy of Fine Arts. His life and work (and the painter also owns remarkable portraits, landscapes and genre paintings) NA Koshelev, if proved, as "in the painting there is no broad high road, and only one can reach her shining peaks, who without fear of fatigue, it climbs the rocky trails" (we have allowed the replacement of only one word to repeat the famous words of Karl Marx - they are organically applicable to the fate of Russian artist).

 The most interesting of his works is a series of "Way of the Cross", written for the church of St.. Conducted. Prince. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Jerusalem.
 eighteen These paintings are not traditional icons in the proper sense of the word - it's monumental art series on "The Way of the Cross of the Savior."

 "The message of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society" describes the interior of the Jerusalem church of St.. Alexander Nevsky in 1892: "... On the west side, and the walls between the windows are delivered to 30 Palestinian and Russian icons of the saints ... the artist Paskhina. Below them are a number of icons, with life-size figures in a highly artistic works of N. A.Kosheleva, depicts all the passionate story of our Lord, from the Agony in the Garden, and to the position of the grave.
 now 20 of these icons are ready only 5: 1) The Agony in the Garden, 2) Jesus Christ awakens his disciples, 3) Surrender to Jesus Christ, 4) Jesus Slave to Caiaphas, and 5) Jesus before Pilate ... "

 From these descriptions, it is clear that by 1892, only five were filled with images of twenty. The report also stated that in the summer of 1891 the artist traveled to Palestine. While traveling to the Holy Land, he captured a series of landscapes, species and antiquities of Jerusalem. Most of these works is now kept in the Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum. Palestinian kinds N. Koshelev represent a rare example of a landscape artist's creative work as a historical painter. The State Museum of the History of Religion in St. Petersburg store ten so-called preparatory sketches made ​​by N. Koshelev oil on paper. On two of these inscriptions indicating that they were created for the church of St.. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the Holy City.
 Coinciding by plot and composition, they are very different from the final version of the images for the temple in Jerusalem. In addition, the figure in the fund of the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, there are about a dozen watercolor sketches N. Koshelev. Some of them are very similar in composition to the paintings in the church of St.. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Jerusalem or just the same as them.

 The work cycle "Way of the Cross" is somewhat different in its scenic decision. Most of the images and written widely sweeping, almost sketchy. The artist uses light and shadow, which gives his work dynamic and emotional tension. Part of the work done in the spirit of genre painting and recalls the paintings from the Gospels masters of the second half of the XIX century. Canvases painted in the style of the late academic salon with a touch of art, and partly - in a realistic manner.
 Simultaneously, the academic N. Koshelev has several distinct national Russian cast.

 All eighteen work cycle "Way of the Cross" in Jerusalem, measuring 352 x 210 cm, made on canvas and hemp oil.

 Information about the last years of the artist's life is almost there. It is only known that before his death, he did not let the brush of hands.

The Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society Jerusalem and the Middle East