The Knight at the Crossroads is a painting by Viktor Vasnetsov. Sketches and drafts for the painting emerged in the early 1870s. In 1877, Vasnetsov, with the help of his younger brother Apollinary, painted the study “Warrior in a Helmet with Chain Mail.” The painting’s plot was inspired by the epic poem “Ilya Muromets and the Robbers.”
In 1877, the work on the first version of the painting was completed. Vasnetsov exhibited it at the VI Peredvizhniki Exhibition in 1878. The final version of the painting was painted in 1882 for Savva Ivanovich Mamontov. The inscription on the stone corresponds to the epic texts but is not fully visible. In a letter to Vladimir Stasov, Vasnetsov writes:
On the stone, it is written: “To go straight means to live not to happen – there is no way for a traveler, a passerby, or a flying bird.” The following inscriptions: “to go to the right means to be married; to go to the left means to be rich” – are not visible on the stone, I hid them under moss and erased part of them. I found these inscriptions in a public library with your kind assistance.
The critic Stasov praised the painting.
In the initial sketches, the knight was facing the viewer. In the final version, the size of the canvas was increased, the composition was flattened, and the figure of the knight became more monumental. In the initial versions of the painting, there was a road, but Vasnetsov removed it in the 1882 version for greater emotional impact, so there would be no other way out except the one indicated on the stone.
Vasnetsov also addressed the epic theme in the early watercolor “Bogatyr” (1870) and in later paintings “Bogatyri” (1898) and “Bogatyr’s Leap” (1914).
The paintings are oil on canvas. The 1882 version is kept in the State Russian Museum. The first version from 1878 is housed in the Serpukhov Historical and Art Museum.
Variants
Researchers of Vasnetsov’s work provide the following list of painting variants.
1877
It was exhibited at the exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists at the Stroganov School in Moscow from December 22, 1903, to January 8, 1904. Printed in its catalog with the annotation “variant.” Presumably, this is the very first version of the painting from 1877.
1878
The first version of the painting was exhibited at the VI Peredvizhniki Exhibition in 1878. According to the Morgunovs’ list, its whereabouts are unknown.
1878
It is not listed in the Morgunovs’ list.
1878-1881
Absent from the Morgunovs’ list. Exhibited at the State Tretyakov Gallery.
1882
1882
V. M. Vasnetsov House and Museum.
1899
It was held in the collection of S. S. Botkin in St. Petersburg and printed in the magazine “World of Art,” Vol. 1, 1899, p. 3.
1919
Collection of I. I. Dedov, Moscow (according to 1961 data). A repetition of the final picture, but in a different color. At the bottom right is the inscription “V. Vasnetsov 1919”
1919
A repetition of the final painting, but in a different color scheme. At the bottom right, there is the signature “V. Vasnetsov 1919.”
The author’s repetition.
1920
At the bottom right there is a signature: V. Vasnetsov 1920.
1961
A repetition of the final painting, but in a different color scheme. In the bottom right corner, there is a signature “V. Vasnetsov 1919.”
In Culture
The plot of “The Knight at the Crossroads” is reproduced on the tombstone of the artist at the Vvedenskoye Cemetery.
In 2013, in honor of the 165th anniversary of Viktor Vasnetsov’s birth, the search engine Yandex featured a special logo on its main page inspired by the painting “The Knight at the Crossroads.”
The expression “The Knight at the Crossroads” is often used metaphorically to describe a situation of existential choice. It was used, in particular, as the title of one of the last books by the renowned Soviet historian A. A. Zimin (1920–1980).
Analogies
The theme of the crossroads is evoked in various works of Western chivalric literature. For example, in “Méraugis de Portlesguez” by Raoul de Houdenc (early 13th century), Méraugis, upon the advice of a damsel (likely a fairy), finds himself facing a cross bearing a magical inscription, which he hears explained by a voice at the same time as he reads it: one path is called the Road without Mercy, the second the Road of Injustice, the third the Road without Name: it is this last one that the hero eventually chooses.
