Grigorii (Krug) (1908-69) 

The Estonian Andrei Rublev

Georg Krug (Georgii Ivanovich Krug) was born on 5 January 1908 in St Petersburg. His father, Johann Wilhelm Krug, was a Swedish-born Protestant industrialist, while his mother, Paraskeva, was Russian Orthodox. As a child, Georg received a Lutheran upbringing, attending from 1916 to 1917 the German gymnasium in St Petersburg. In 1921, the Krugs received Estonian citizenship and moved to Narva, where Georg graduated from the local Russian gymnasium in 1926. In Narva, Georg worked under the St Petersburg and Italian school artist Eduard Verber. From 1926 to 1928, he studied in Tallinn with Professor Günther Reindorff at the State School of Art and Industry. In Tallinn, he also gained proficiency in drawing and water colours with the Baltic German commercial artist Klara Zeidler, who herself had been educated in Paris, London, and Vienna: he also became acquainted with Russian émigré artists in Estonia and Archpriest Lev Liperovskii. After participating in several events organised by the Russian Student Christian Movement at the Pechory monastery and elsewhere, Krug converted to Orthodoxy in 1929.

Krug continued his studies at the Pallas Art School in Tartu, where his teachers were Ado Vabbe and Nikolai Triik, who influenced his modernist style. In Tartu, Krug completed a series of portraits of city denizens. His works were shown at several local exhibitions between 1929 and 1930. At this time, the Russian art scene was bubbling with modernism, in part thanks to close links with French artists. According to the artist Jüri Arraku (1936-2022), Georg Krug’s early work Natürmort is a symbolist work in a stark style, with black contours interrupted by the red crack in a broken clay pot. In slightly later paintings, such as Pears, executed in a strong, expressive style, the artist’s inner tragedy is palpable. The loss of the homeland, the situation of the Orthodox Church, and the latest steps of socialism are not left ignored in the artist’s works. Looking at the pears depicted on a white-black-red background, one’s thoughts drift to church bells and blood on the snow.

In 1931, Krug moved to Paris to continue his art studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. Following the economic crisis and the closure of the school, he received guidance from Nikolai Miliot and Konstantin Somov, both in Paris and during summer drawing classes in Normandy. Here he met fellow student Leonid Uspenskii, who later became his colleague and friend for life.

Krug's career as an icon painter began when he studied under Sergei Feodorov, Dmitrii Stelletskii, and Julia Reitlinger. In 1933, he and Leonid Uspenskii were commissioned to paint a new iconostasis for the Église des Trois Saints Docteurs in Paris. During this period, Krug saw the great talents that had emigrated from his homeland, working with and alongside them. He remembered Günther Reindorff's romantic style of painting, Ado Vabbe’s subtle nervousness, and Nikolai Triig’s crisp symbolist clarity. He was surrounded by Nikolai Miliot’s dreamlike narratives and Konstantin Somov’s passionate pictures. Unlike Uspenskii, who severed his ties with the secular art world, Krug continued to work in the studios of the Russian avant-garde artists Mikhail Larionov and Natal’ia Goncharova into the 1930s.

In 1933, Krug joined the St Photius Fraternity of the Moscow Patriarchate in Paris, whose aim was to preserve and revive Orthodoxy in Western society. The leader of the society was the theologian scholar Nikolai Losskii. One of Krug's works from this time was an iconostasis for a homeless shelter on Rue Noisy-le-Grand. He also took part in the 1935 Russian Painting Exhibition in Prague, where he was one of 154 artists alongside Aivazovskii, Chagall, Repin, Shishkin, Serov, Uspenskii, and Larionov.

In the early 1940s, Krug suffered a deep mental crisis, which developed into depression and led to his being admitted to a mental hospital. As a result of the pastoral support and intercessions of Hieromonk Sergei (Shevich), he was released and became a novice in 1945. In 1947, while painting the iconostasis of the Rue Petel church, Georg Krug became acquainted with Sofronii (Sakharov, 1896-1993), the founder of the monastery of St John the Baptist in Essex and a future saint. Sofronii had arrived in Paris from Mount Athos due to ill health and in the hope of publishing a book about his spiritual father Silouan. Father Sofronii had seen Krug’s icons, whose novelty impressed him so much that he asked Krug to paint an iconostasis for the monastic community he had created in France. This iconostasis, The Holy Evening Meal, now stands in the Essex monastery of St John the Baptist. Among other things, Father Sofronii was for a long time the spiritual father of the world-famous Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, who in his creative crisis (from 1980) ended up in the Essex monastery. The spiritual search for self-discovery shines through in the lives and works of all three men: Arvo Pärt’s Adam’s Cry, Father Sofronii’s perception of uncreated light, and Georg Krug’s discovery of a visual language to praise God.

Man is not born an icon painter. Perhaps iconic art is the true heart of great art, and all novelty, doubt, search, and transformation are just deviations from iconic art. Many artists have shared the idea that neither realism nor impressionism are enough to truly express oneself. Picasso, for example, found a solution in abstract forms, Larionov spoke of rays reflecting off surfaces, Malevich moved onto simple symbols, and Kandinskii spoke of the spirituality of art. It was as if the art world had come unglued and was gradually being pieced together with strong visions. The history of art was moving towards iconic art, and ordinary art was coming out of iconic art. ‘Since our vision is arranged in such a way that we do not perceive the objects themselves, but the rays reflected from them, we have to focus on the rays!’ said Mikhail Larionov. Light rays not only reflect off surfaces, but also come from inside them. God is behind everything, the symbol is there and the rays of light remain. A similar ray of light reached Georg Krug in the form of Byzantine iconography and the works of St Andrei Rublev. As a deep believer, Krug found a way to know God in prayer and fasting, in work and study.

In 1948, Krug was ordained a monk in Vanves. At his ordination, he took the name of Grigorii after the pious icon painter and saint of the Kiev Monastery of the Caves. After his ordination, he moved to the Sainte-Trinité skete in Le Mesnil-Saint-Denis, where he devoted himself entirely to painting icons for several Orthodox churches in France and elsewhere. (Krug's) last work was Apostle Thomas Witnessing the Wounds of the Risen Christ. He died after a serious illness on 12 June 1969: his earthly remains were interred near the monastery church on 16 June. His iconic legacy lives on in many churches and private collections around the world, testimony to his dedication and talent. (Krug’s) iconography is characterised by a fusion of traditional iconography with a contemporary artistic language, reflecting a profound spiritual experience. His icons have often been compared to those of Andrei Rublev. They focus on traditional Orthodox motifs, are highly evocative, and reveal a personal style rich in colour combination and detail.

In terms of (Krug’s) creative process, he read and prayed and then sat quietly in front of his panel. When it seemed that the icon to be born had entered him, he quickly drew it. He then spent a long time finishing it. During the painting, Father Sergei read to him from the Church Fathers and saints’ vitae. Nobody but Father Sergei saw him painting. He never copied other icons, but drew directly on the surface of the icon, and further work and revisions took place there.

(Krug’s) iconic style is characterised by a combination of tradition and modernity. He drew firmly on Orthodox canonical iconography, but added a personal artistic interpretation and a contemporary sensibility, with some deviation from the strict canon of icon painting. He did not use gold, which meant a move away from ‘typical’ Russian icon painting. In his works, there is an important emphasis on the representation of light, which symbolises the divine, the presence of a so-called uncreated light. The light seemed to come from within the figures, which is in line with the Orthodox doctrine of spiritual enlightenment. His depictions of saints and Christ are particularly tender and warm, expressing deep empathy and spirituality. His icons and frescoes are imbued with a warm sense of faith and a deep reverence for the sacred. Traditional Byzantine iconographic proportions are combined with vivid and emotional images that add humanity and liveliness to the works.

Grigorii (Krug) can be called a revivalist of the free Byzantine style, along with other well-known twentieth-century Orthodox icon painters Leonid Uspenskii and Photis Kontoglou. According to Nikolai Losskii, the founder of the renowned neo-patristic school and a scholar of hesychasm, no one understood him as thoroughly as Grigorii (Krug). His balance between the old and the new can be compared to the music of Arvo Pärt, which harmoniously combines both old Orthodox tradition and innovation.

Authors

Andrei Sõtšov & Aapo Pukk

Sources

Сергеенко, А. Протоиерей. „Инок-иконописец Григорий (Круг) (1908 - 1969).“ Журнал Московской Патриархии, 1970, No. 3, ст 13–15.

Асланова, Екатерина. „Возлюбих благолепие дому Твоего.“ Журнал Московской Патриархии, 1970, No. 3, ст 15–19.

Ouspensky, Leonid. The Meaning of Icons. Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1982.

New Liturgical Movement. "Russian Iconographer Fr. Gregory Krug." 2010. Vaadatud 15. jaanuar 2025. https://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2010/02/russian-iconographer-fr-gregory-krug.html

O´Keefe, Seraphim. “Fr Gregory Kroug – An Exhibition Honoring the 50th Anniversary of his Repose.” 2019. Vaadatud 18. jaanuar 2025 Fr Gregory Kroug – An Exhibition Honoring the 50th Anniversary of his Repose – Orthodox Arts Journal

Georg Krug "Natüürmort", Eesti Rahvusringhääling, Üks pilt: 15, 17. aprill 1995. https://arhiiv.err.ee/video/vaata/uks-pilt-georg-krug-natuurmort, Vaadatud 22. detsember 2024