The painting Peter the Great Interrogating the Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich at Peterhof was created by the Russian artist Nikolai Ge (1831–1894) and completed in 1871. The painting is stored in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow (Inventory 2630). The dimensions of the painting are 135.7 cm by 173 cm (according to other data, 134.8 cm by 172.7 cm). Ge's work offers a psychological interpretation of a historical drama set in 1718. The painting depicts Peter I and his son Alexei Petrovich, who has been accused of preparing to seize power, in the interior of the Monplaisir Palace in Peterhof. Before pronouncing sentence, Peter I gazes into his son's eyes, still hoping to discern signs of remorse.
The painting was created by Ge for the inaugural exhibition of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions (Peredvizhniki), which opened in St Petersburg in November 1871. In particular, the artist's choice of theme was motivated by the approaching 200th anniversary of Peter the Great (1672–1725). Prior to the exhibition, the canvas was purchased from the artist by Pavel Tretyakov. Nikolai Ge painted several copies of the painting, one of which was purchased by Alexander II and is now part of the collection of the State Russian Museum.
Writer and critic Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin described the heroes of the canvas as follows: "Anyone who has seen these two simple, not at all spectacularly staged figures will have to admit that he has witnessed one of those amazing dramas that will never be erased from memory." Art critic Vladimir Stasov considered Ge's painting to be one of the best works in the 1st Travelling Exhibition, writing: "None of Mr Ge's previous paintings bore such a stamp of maturity and skill as this one." Art historian Alla Vereshchagina noted that the painting Peter the Great Interrogating the Tsarevich Alexei Petrovich at Peterhof was "the most important milestone" in the development of a new direction in Russian historical painting of the 1870s, associated with the artistic interpretation of the eminent man and his place in history.
History
Background and creation By the beginning of 1870, Nikolai Ge had returned to Russia from Italy, where he had resided and worked between 1857 and 1863 and again between 1864 and 1869. His final relocation occurred in May 1870, when he and his family settled on Vasilyevsky Island in St Petersburg. During this period, Ge became acquainted with a number of progressive artists and writers, and subsequently became one of the founders of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions. In his oeuvre, subjects related to the Russian history of the 18th and 19th centuries began to emerge. One of the earliest works on this theme was the painting Peter I and the Tsarevich Alexei. The plot associated with Peter I was relevant in connection with the approaching 200th anniversary of his birth.
Ge himself wrote in his memoirs: "Ten years of living in Italy had their effect on me, and I returned from there a perfect Italian, seeing everything in Russia in a new light. I felt in everything and everywhere the influence and trace of the Petrine reform. This feeling was so strong that I involuntarily became fascinated with Peter, and it was under the influence of this fascination that I conceived my painting Peter I and the Tsarevich Alexei." It is probable that the choice of theme was influenced by Ge's close contact with the historian and publicist Nikolai Kostomarov. The initial sketch for the future canvas was made in 1870, and the work itself was completed in 1871.
Some researchers have postulated that the plot of the work may have been influenced by the fascination of the artist, Ge, with the work of the French painter Paul Delaroche. This fascination was also evident in the works of other Russian artists of the period, including Vyacheslav Schwarz, Konstantin Flavitsky, Valery Jacobi and Karlis Huns, who were interested in "bloody episodes of court life, in the spectacular exposure of facts hidden by official historiography". Furthermore, the work of Vyacheslav Schwarz, Ivan the Terrible by the body of his son, who he has murdered, is sometimes considered a predecessor to "Peter and Alexei." There are two works, created in the 1860s - charcoal and chalk drawing on cardboard that was completed in 1861 (held in the State Russian Museum), and an oil painting on canvas, created in 1864 (held in the State Tretyakov Gallery).
As Ge worked on the painting, he conducted research into historical documents pertaining to the activities of Peter the Great. It is probable that these documents include those published by historian Nikolay Ustryalov in the sixth volume of The History of Peter the Great's Reign, published in 1859. Apparently, Ge discussed the matter with his acquaintances and friends, in particular with Nikolai Kostomarov. Consequently, the initial idealisation of Peter the Great's personality was supplanted by a more realistic appraisal, contingent upon an understanding of the cruelty and affliction that compensated for the triumphs of Peter's reforms. The artist described this situation this way: "At the time of writing the painting Peter I and the Tsarevich Alexei, I had sympathy for Peter, but then, having studied many documents, I saw that there could be no sympathy. I stirred up in myself sympathy for Peter, saying that he put public interests above fatherly feelings, and this justified his cruelty, but killed the ideal."
By the early 1870s, the Russian public had become sufficiently aware of the "case of the Tsarevich Alexei", although a couple of decades earlier this episode could be more accurately described as a "historical mishap", of which it was not customary to speak. In the late 1850s, this "case" came to the centre of attention in connection with publications in the Polar Star almanac, published by Alexander Herzen and Nikolay Ogarev. In particular, the publication included documents that contradicted the official version of Tsarevich Alexei's death, which stated that he died in the Peter and Paul Fortress "out of grief." The documents contained information indicating that he was strangled by order of Peter the Great. However, the authenticity of one of the published letters was later questioned. Famous historians and publicists such as Nikolai Ustryalov, Nikolai Kostomarov, Mikhail Pogodin, Sergey Solovyov, Mikhail Semevsky, Pyotr Pekarsky, Nikolay Dobrolyubov, and others were involved in the extensive debate that arose following the release of these publications. According to historian and writer Natan Eidelman, "the controversy surrounding the case of Tsarevich Alexei in the 1858-1860s was one of the most contemporary topics". In this sense, the painting which Nikolai Ge was working on "seemed to summarise the old controversies and give rise to new ones". Furthermore, the painting could be regarded as a tribute to Alexander Herzen, who died on 21 January 1870.
While working on the painting, Ge thoroughly studied the iconography of Peter the Great available to him. According to critic Vladimir Stasov, Ge "studied Peter's face and figure in the Hermitage from all the engraved and oil-painted portraits of him". It is also known that the artist incorporated elements of Peter's portrait from his wife, Anna Petrovna Ge, née Zabela (Zabello). According to the peredvizhnik artist Grigory Myasoedov, "in his wife, he [Ge], despite the fact that she was far from beautiful, saw all the perfections: from her he painted Magdalene, and Peter the Great, and many others". Stasov reported that Ge also studied all the surviving portraits of Alexei Petrovich, and as a model for him used "one of his acquaintances, a small official of the Ministry of Finance, in whose sickly, emaciated face and figure he found some resemblance to the portraits of Tsarevich Alexei." Stasov also provided the name of this official, which was Nikolai Grigorievich Zaichnevsky. Nikolai Zaichnevsky was the brother of the revolutionary nationalist Pyotr Zaichnevsky.
In order to depict the scene in the interior of the Monplaisir Palace, Ge specially visited Peterhof, from where, in his own words, "in his mind, in his memory, he brought back the whole background of the painting Peter and Alexei, with the fireplace, with cornices, with four paintings of the Dutch school, with chairs, with the floor and lighting". At the same time, Ge claimed that one visit to the Montplaisir was enough for him: "And I was only in that room once, and I was deliberately only there once, so as not to break the impression I had formed". Some details of Ge's stay in Peterhof are known from the words of the philosopher Vladimir Lesevich, as set out in the book by Vladimir Stasov: during his visit to the palace, the artist took a long look at the room, as well as the authentic dressing gown and cap of Peter the Great, and the old guard, a retired soldier, who accompanied him, stated, that it was only the second occasion on which he had observed such meticulous examination of these items. The first occasion was when the Emperor Nicholas I had done so.
In his memoirs, artist Ilya Repin recounted how he paid a visit to Nikolai Ge while the latter was working on the painting. The artist's studio was situated in the courtyard wing of house No. 36, 7th line of Vasilyevsky Island, where he lived. According to Repin, during his visit, a canvas was positioned on an easel with an initial charcoal sketch on which "Peter was silhouetted against the light background of a window in the Montplaisir palace". However, later, the artist "changed the background, replacing the windows with the opposite wall of the hall". Artist Alexander Rizzoni also visited Ge's studio. In a letter to Pavel Tretyakov, he described the unfinished canvas as follows: "I like Ge's painting very much; in my opinion, it is the best thing he has ever produced. I only wish he would keep the expression of the faces as they are now, everything is excellent. If he finishes it according to how it is now, it will be an extraordinary work". There are disagreements about the dating of Rizzoni's letter: in the collection Artists' letters to P. M. Tretyakov" (1968) it is dated 12 December 1870, but in the edition Nikolai Nikolaevich Ge: letters, articles, criticism, memories of contemporaries (1978) it is stated that this dating is wrong, because at that time "the painting existed only as a sketch", and the letter could not have been written earlier than autumn 1871, "when Ge, after a summer break, was finishing his painting".
1st travelling exhibition and selling the painting