Jacob and John

Jacob and John, painted on cardboard in 1890 and now in the Russian Museum, depicts two of Christ's twelve apostles — James and John, sons of Zebedee — whom the Gospels record as among the first disciples called and who were part of the innermost circle of three present at the Transfiguration and at Gethsemane. Polenov had by 1890 made his extensive journey to the Near East and produced the major Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery; his smaller studies and character sketches from this period reflect ongoing research into the human material of the New Testament — who these men were, what they looked like, how they carried themselves. The cardboard support suggests this is a concentrated study rather than an exhibition work, a piece of pictorial thinking about the character of two specific individuals within the wider cast of the biblical narrative.

Executed in oil on cardboard, the work takes advantage of the support's compact, immediate character for a close study of two figures. Polenov renders the apostles in the Near Eastern costume his research had determined as appropriate, with the warm, direct light of the Levantine landscape playing across their faces and clothing. The cardboard's slightly absorbent surface gives the paint a matte, fresco-like quality.