He that is without sin...

He that is without sin..., painted in 1908, takes its title from Christ's response in John 8 to those who brought the adulterous woman before him — the same episode Polenov had painted in his celebrated 1884 canvas. The 1908 work represents a return to the subject after more than two decades, a reconsideration that may reflect Polenov's continued engagement with the New Testament narrative and his desire to render key Gospel moments through multiple compositional approaches. The phrase itself had acquired particular resonance in early twentieth-century Russian intellectual life, where debates about law, mercy, and human moral authority were conducted in the shadow of revolutionary politics and religious controversy. Polenov's ongoing biblical cycle, continued into the early twentieth century, showed remarkable consistency of purpose across the decades.

Oil on canvas, the work returns to the setting Polenov had researched so thoroughly for the 1884 version — the Jerusalem of the first century, reconstructed from his archaeological studies and plein-air documentation. The later work may differ in compositional emphasis and colour treatment, reflecting the evolution of Polenov's technique over the intervening quarter-century.