St Matthew the Evangelist

Gsell employed oil paint on canvas to render the figure with a polished finish and careful attention to anatomical detail. The composition is dominated by a restrained palette of deep blues, greens, and warm browns, with the stark white pages of the open book providing a sharp contrast. The saint wears a dark blue-green mantle over a reddish undergarment, and a thin golden halo hovers above his head. Light falls from the upper left, modeling the face, hands, and the folds of the drapery. The brushwork is smooth, allowing for soft transitions particularly visible in the flesh tones and fabric. The background consists of a flat, muted green with no discernible details, isolating the figure and emphasizing his contemplative state. The surface shows some wear and minor abrasions along the edges.

Georg Gsell created the painting in 1729 during his tenure in Russia. This work was part of a commission of thirteen paintings for the Lutheran Church of Saint Peter on Nevsky Prospect in St. Petersburg, which included knee-high images of the apostles and gospel writers alongside a depiction of the Crucifixion. The painting eventually entered the imperial collections, and Gsell himself helped compile inventories of the painting collections at Peterhof Palaces, including the Hermitage, in 1738 and 1739. Today, the painting remains in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Georg Gsell was a Swiss painter born in St. Gallen in 1673 who studied in Vienna under the Antwerp painter A. Schoonjans before moving to Amsterdam. In 1717, he relocated to Russia at the invitation of Peter the Great, whom he had met in the Netherlands. Gsell became a central figure in the early Russian Academy of Sciences, teaching drawing and painting there starting in 1726. His contributions to Russian art extended beyond easel paintings to include plafonds at the Summer Palace, icons and dome pictures for the Peter and Paul Cathedral, and decorative projects for the Kunstkamera and triumphal gates. His work on the Lutheran Church of Saint Peter, which included St Matthew the Evangelist, reflects the integration of Western European baroque and religious painting traditions into the Russian imperial capital during the early eighteenth century.

The commission of thirteen works for the Lutheran Church of Saint Peter represents a specific phase in Gsell's output, bridging his secular court duties and his ecclesiastical commissions. While the broader cultural legacy of Matthew the Evangelist as a subject spans centuries of Christian art, from early Carolingian manuscripts to Renaissance masterpieces, Gsell's painting contributes to this tradition by adapting the iconography to the formal, polished aesthetics of eighteenth-century European painting practiced in the Russian court. The work remains a part of the Hermitage Museum's holdings, preserving the record of the Western artistic influence fostered by Peter the Great's cultural programs.