How does Christ in the Desert elucidate its History?
The theme of Christ's temptation had attracted Kramskoi already in the early 1860s. In that period he made the first sketch of the composition. The first version of Christ in the Desert is dated to 1867, but turned out to be unsuccessful. Kramskoi realized that the choice of vertical format was inappropriate. He opted for the horizontal format and introduced the pallid rocky desert in the background.Kramskoi described the early history of the painting in his letters to writer Vsevolod Garshin.
Vsevolod Garshin