Alexander Ivanov was an outstanding Russian painter who lived in the middle of the nineteenth century, during the romantic period. He did not accept romanticism but instead tried to create his own original style, an ambitious combination of spiritual profundity and a manner of execution unparalleled in Western European art. Ivanov's intention and style are best reflected in his major work The Appearance of Christ to the People, a picture on which he worked for over 20 years. He painted more than 400 sketches of the picture while attempting to bring his masterpiece to perfection. At the end of his life Ivanov became disillusioned, renounced his strong religious conviction and became suspicious. This study examines the influence of his background, life story and personality on the creative process. From a diagnostic perspective, Ivanov's personality featured obsessive, narcissistic and schizoid traits. In his final years he suffered from a delusional disorder.
References
1.
MatisseH. Matisse: The Artist Speaks. San Francisco: Collins Publishers, 1996.
GilmanSLSeeing the Insane. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.
4.
Aristotle. Problemata (HettsWS, trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953.
5.
Plato. Phaedrus (HackforthR, trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952.
6.
LombrosoC. The Man of Genius. London: Walter Scott, 1925.
7.
FicinoM. Three Books on Life. (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies.)New York: State University of New York at Binghamton, 1989.
8.
LudwigAMCreative achievement and psychopathology: Comparison among professions. American Journal of Psychotherapy1992;46:330–56.
9.
HareE. Creativity and mental illness. British Medical Journal (Clinical Research Edition)1987;295:1587–9.
10.
AndreasenNCCreativity and mental illness: Prevalence rates in writers and their first-degree relatives. American Journal of Psychiatry1987;144:1288–92.
11.
JamisonKRMood disorders and patterns of creativity in British writers and artists. Psychiatry1989;52:125–34.
12.
MilnerJ. A Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Artists 1420–1970.Suffolk: Antique Collectors' Club, 1993.
13.
BenoisA. The Russian School of Painting. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1916.
14.
AlpatovM. Aleksandr Andreevich Ivanov. Zhizn' i Tvorchestvo. [Alexander Andreevich Ivanov. Life and Creativity.]Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1956.
15.
TsomakionAIA. A. Ivanov. Ego Zhizn' i Khudozhestvennaya Deyatelnost. [A. A. Ivanov. His Life and Art.]St Petersburg: Tipografia Contragenstva Zheleznoi Dorogi, 1894.
16.
RamazanovNAMateriali dlya istorii khudozhestv v Rossii. [The Data for Russian Art History.]Moscow: Pechatnoe Tovarischestvo, 1863.
17.
BotkinM. Aleksandr Andreevich Ivanov. Ego Zhizn' i Perepiska. [Alexander Andreevich Ivanov. His Life and Correspondence.]St Petersburg: Stasilevich, 1880.
18.
NovitskyAPOpit Polnoi Biografii A. A. Ivanova. [Experience of the Complete A. A. Ivanov's Biography.]Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1895.
19.
BowltJERussian painting in the nineteenth century. In: StavrouTG, ed. Art and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983.
IordanFIZapiski rektora i professora Akademii Khudozhestv F. I. Iordana. [The memoirs of rector and professor of Art Academy of P. I. Iordan.]Moscow: Academy of Art, 1918.
22.
WitztumELernerVKalianM. Creativity and insanity: The enigmatic medical biography of Nikolai Gogol. Journal of Medical Biography2000;8:110–16.
23.
GogolNVSobranine sohinenii v 6 tomakh. [The Works of Gogol in 6 Volumes.]Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, 1959: vol. V, pp. 69–70.
24.
BirdA. A History of Russian Painting. Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1987.
25.
SarabianovDARussian Art. From Neoclassicism to the Avant-Garde.London: Thames and Hudson, 1990.
26.
ShapiroD. Neurotic Styles. New York: Basic Books, 1965.
27.
SimsA. Symptoms in the Mind. An Introduction to Descriptive Psychopathology. London: W B Saunders, 2002.
28.
TaylorJCRussian painters and the pursuit of light. In: StavrouTG, ed. Art and Culture in Nineteenth-Century Russia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983.
29.
KaplanHISadockBJKaplan & Sadock's Compehensive Textbook of Psychiatry. Baltimore: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins, 1999.
30.
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th edn. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 1994.
31.
Herzen, cited by HareR. The Art and Artists of Russia. London: Methuen, 1965.
32.
HamiltonGHThe Art and Architecture of Russia. Ehrhardt: Yale University Press, 1983.
