Elisabeth Ivanovsky

(1910 - 2006)

3039

Elisabeth Ivanovsky

La legende de Saint Nicolas

Brussels,  Isad,1933

336 x 200 mm. twice folded sheet of paper

Edition: 25. Copy nr. 24/25.

The Holy Nicolas of Myra is by far the most popular saint in Russian orthodoxy. He is connected to Russia as inextricably as St. Patrick to Ireland. His life and miracles have been depicted in numerous icons. When in 1932 Ivanovsky arrived in Belgium from Kishenev (Capital of Bessarabia) she discovered the Low Countries also had a special connection with Russia’s most favourite saint. There the evening of his name-day on December 6th is still celebrated as a children’s feast. The legend has it that the Holy Man saved three children from certain death. This apocryphal story is probably derived from a wrong interpretation of the Byzantine image of St. Nicolas quieting a storm, thus saving three sailors. In recent times, St. Nicolas has been transformed into Santa Claus or Father Christmas, the bringer of gifts to children. In 1932 at the Brussels’ art institute La Cambre this event was also celebrated, which probably explains why Ivanovsky made these hand-coloured lino-cuts in her first year at the institute. She depicts St. Nicolas not as a Russian saint but as the Low Countries’ Sinterklaas (Santa), a bishop with a white beard, a red robe and a distaff. Three years later she turned to St. Nicolas once more when she illustrated Henri Gheon’s version of the life and miracles of this popular saint.