Lazarus at the Rich Man's Gate

Fyodor Andreyevich Bronnikov ( 17 September 1827–14 September 1902) was a Russian-born history and genre painter who spent most of his life in Italy. After graduating from the Imperial Academy of arts he moved to Rome where he  painted a wide variety of canvases, including landscapes, village scenes, genre scenes, historical works and, of course, portraits of the city's notable citizens.

A versatile artist Fyodor Bronnikov was a great master of portrait painting. His works of this genre, distinguished by a fine drawing, a striking resemblance to nature. Their peculiarity is also the psychological content of the portrait and the persuasiveness of the pictorial language. In the landscapes, the artist faithfully and penetratingly conveys a state of the world around. They are marked by colourful harmony and purity of colours. The artist developed his love for nature in his childhood years in the Trans-Urals. It is not by chance that in letters to his relatives in Shadrinsk he often recalls the beauty of his native places. "No boundless fields here as you have in Russia, no dense forests... and that's a pity. I love the vastness and our Russian fields, like a limitless sea," he shared his feelings with his countrymen.

Most of his works are in Russia, but many have also been acquired by amateurs from the UK, the US, Hungary, Italy, and Denmark.

Luke 16:19-31 contains the account of a very rich man who lived a life of extreme luxury. Laid outside the gate of this rich man’s house, however, was an extremely poor man named Lazarus who simply hoped “to eat what fell from the rich man’s table” (v. 21). The rich man was completely indifferent to the plight of Lazarus, showing him no love, sympathy, or compassion whatsoever. Eventually, they both died. Lazarus went to heaven, and the rich man went to hell. Appealing to “Father Abraham” in heaven, the rich man requested that Lazarus be sent to cool his tongue with a drop of water to lessen his “agony in this fire.” The rich man also asked Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn his brothers to repent so that they would never join him in hell. Both requests were denied. Abraham told the rich man that if his brothers did not believe in Scripture, neither would they believe a messenger, even if he came straight from heaven.