Nikolai Ge

Nikolai Ge (1831–1894) was Russia's most controversial religious painter. Born in Voronezh to a Ukrainian noble family of French origin, he studied physics and mathematics before switching to art in 1850 at the Imperial Academy in Saint Petersburg. His 1857 gold medal for The Witch of Endor Invoking the Spirit of the Prophet Samuel funded study abroad. In Rome, he met the great Russian history painter Alexander Ivanov, who deeply influenced his approach to biblical subjects.

The Last Supper (1863) made Ge famous overnight. The Academy named him professor for this work alone. Unlike traditional depictions, Ge showed Christ and Judas in psychological confrontation rather than symbolic arrangement. He joined the Peredvizhniki (Wanderers) movement in the 1870s, exhibiting with them and rejecting Academic conventions in favor of realist depictions of social and historical truth. His 1871 Peter the Great Interrogates Tsarevich Alexey dramatized autocratic power's human cost through unflinching psychological realism.

In 1882, Ge met Leo Tolstoy and adopted his teachings, causing family conflict. The friendship sparked his "Gospel Series," exploring New Testament themes through moral lenses. These late works faced censorship: Quod Est Veritas? (1890) was expelled from exhibition, The Crucifixion (1894) was banned by Tsar Alexander III. Ge died on his Ukrainian estate in 1894. His masterpieces hang at the State Russian Museum and Tretyakov Gallery.