Nikolai Ge, a master of portrait and historical painting, created Boris Godunov and Tsarina Marfa in 1874. This work is a sketch of a painting that never came to be.

In this work, the artist depicted a historical scene. Russia suffered a dynastic crisis at the end of the 16th century. Tsarevich Dmitry, the younger son of Ivan the Terrible and the last representative of the Romanovs, died under strange circumstances in Uglich. This event brought Boris Godunov to the throne. He was related to the Tsar Fyodor’s wife who ruled the country after Ivan the Terrible. The people declared Godunov the murderer of Tsarevich Dmitry.

At that time, the Polish authorities decided to take advantage of the crisis and announced that Tsarevich Dmitry was still alive: they wanted to set their viceroy, Pseudo Dmitry I, on the throne. When the impostor came to the scene, Boris Godunov decided to interrogate the mother of the real Tsarevich Dmitry, Marfa the nun.

Boris Godunov’s fierce anger is contrasted with the ominous calm of Martha the nun. Her lips are tightly squeezed, her eyes are on the Tsar and her arms are crossed on her chest. Everything in her posture and facial expression speaks about firmness and fearlessness. The composition of the sketch is similar to that of the painting. Peter I Interrogates Tsarevich Alexei  which Nikolai Ge painted in 1871. Art historians assume that was the reason why the artist did not develop his idea further.

Nikolai Ge was born in 1831 into the family of a landowner who lived in Voronezh. In 1848, Nikolai Ge moved from Kiev to the capital of the Russian Empire. He studied at Faculty of Mathematics of the St. Petersburg University, but left it in 1850 to enter the Academy of Arts. Five years later, the young painter received the highest award at the Academy, the Grand Gold Medal, which entitled him to travel to Europe. He seized the opportunity and traveled to Italy, France, Germany, and Switzerland.

In 1869, the painter returned to Russia and joined the Itinerants. Nikolai Ge created the painting Peter I interrogates Tsarevich Alexei in Peterhof for the first exhibition of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions. The philanthropist Peter Tretyakov, the founder of the Tretyakov Gallery, bought the painting. In his mature years, Nikolai Ge created paintings dedicated to religious subjects.