Father Sophrony, Sergei Sakharov (1896 - 1993) was one of the founding members of a society of painters called 'Bytie' or 'Being' in Moscow just after the Russian Revolution. Although he was sympathetic with the quest of his fellow artists to captivate a representation of true 'Being' that would endure, he gradually realised that he could not find anything in the art of his era except the image of the chaos that surrounded it. An intense period of spiritual search led him to faith in Christ, and he abandoned painting in order to devote himself to prayer. He became an Orthodox monk and then a priest on Mount Athos. After many years of ascetic striving, he left the Holy Mountain and upon establishing an Orthodox monastery in Essex, England, returned to painting in order to attempt to portray true ‘Being’ in icons of Christ and the saints. This book presents the dual inspirations of Father Sophrony’s iconography, focusing on the years of his artistic formation and relating this to his later reflections on the relationship of prayer, freedom and creativity."Art has something that can help one to come nearer to the first Artist. As curious people used to look behind my back at what I was painting when painting in plain-air, so, in the same way, it would be good to be able to stand behind the back of God and watch Him creating."

BEING: The Art and Life of Father Sophrony

Biographies & Memoirs

Gabriela, Sister

Arts & Literature

Stavropegic Monastery of St John the Baptist, Essex

Father Sophrony, Sergei Sakharov (1896-1993), started his life as a painter. He then became a monk, priest, spiritual director. He founded his own monastery and began to paint icons. The latter part of his life is well known, but his artistic path is still mainly unknown. The present book is an attempt to rectify this and to introduce Father Sophrony's artistic vision and understanding."To paint an icon is like writing a poem; one cannot add or take away a single word. In the same way the icon should only contain the necessary, not too little, not too much.""One has to know technique, but one also needs to know art. An icon should be like a 'painting', like a prayer written with beautiful letters.""We should make the faces of the icons attractive, so that the onlooker is able to pray. The icons should be like a trampoline towards eternal life."

Seeking Perfection in the world of art: The artistic path of Father Sophrony

Archimandrite Sophrony (Sergei Sakharov) (1896-1993) has a unique place among artists. He studied and started his career as a painter in abstract and figurative fields in Russia. Later, he exhibited in the Salons of Paris. After becoming an Orthodox monk on Mount Athos, he began painting icons. Later in life he founded his own monastery in Essex, England where he developed his icon painting and created several large murals.This catalogue mainly comprises works from the last period.

A. Sophrony (Sergei Sakharov) Catalogue Raisonné: Drawings and Paintings

Arts & Photography

Religious

Can a connection be made between art and a personal experience of God?It is almost a century since Archimandrite Sophrony (then Sergei S. Sakharov) left Moscow, his hometown, where he had received his artistic education, in order to further his artistic formation in Italy, Berlin, and Paris. Art for him was a search for the Truth, the Absolute, and the Perfect. When this search brought him to discover the personal God, Christ, he abandoned painting in order to deepen this relationship in prayer on Mt Athos. Today Archimandrite Sophrony is recognised for his theological writings based on his ascetic monastic life, but his artistic endeavours are less known. Yet with time, he also discovered a way to express his personal relationship with God in visual form. This book presents a selection of his artwork in the various media he used: icon painting, murals, designs, and drawings.

Painting as Prayer: The Art of A. Sophrony Sakharov

Stavropegic Monastery of Saint John the Baptist

Archimandrite Sophrony, recently numbered among the saints with the name St Sophrony the Athonite (Sergei Sakharov, 1896–1993), has a unique place among artists. He studied in Moscow where he started his career producing abstract and figurative work. Later, he exhibited in the Salons of Paris. He started painting icons after becoming a monk on Mt Athos and perfected his art in the monastery he founded in Essex, England.His main works can be seen in the first volume of the Catalogue Raisonné (Drawings and Paintings). This second volume covers the icons he painted for commission, as well as those painted with his assistants. Sophrony, at birth Sergei Sakharov, was born in Moscow in 1896. There he studied painting both before and after the Revolution with noted artists, among them Wassily Kandinsky. In 1922, he immigrated to Paris where he enjoyed success exhibiting in the salons. Yet in spite of his deep love of art, the force of his spiritual calling caused his life to take another turn. In 1926, he left for Mount Athos to become a monk at the Russian Orthodox monastery of St. Panteleimon. Twenty-two years later, A. Sophrony returned to Paris in order to publish the writings of his spiritual elder, St Silouan. In 1959, with a small group of followers, he moved to Essex, England where he founded his own monastery, the Community of St John the Baptist. Here, he reposed in 1993.Most of A. Sophrony’s works were published in the first volume of the Catalogue Raisonné. However, the icons he painted for commissions as well as icons he painted in collaboration with assistants were only partly included. This present volume fills this gap. Some icons which were included in the first volume have been repeated here and some drawings from the first volume have been printed next to the finished works for study purposes. A few new drawings relating to one work in particular were found and added.

A. Sophrony (Sergei Sakharov) Catalogue raisonné vol.2: Icons: commissions & collaborations

Individual Artists

Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist