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

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.