the village where the property of Savva Mamontov is. Savva and Vasily had met a decade before in Italy and were now ready to create together surrounded by artists from all disciplines. The very essence of this place was to give freedom of creation, renouncing to academic aesthetic canons. Savva Mamontov would animate his workshops based on traditional art and Russian folklore. There, all art practices were combined: painting, architecture, music but also decorative and popular arts such as wood crafting and ceramics. In addition to Polenov, the main artists that took part of the circle were Repin, Viktor Vasnetsov, Constantin Korovin, Mikhail Vrubel, Elena Polenova (Polenov's younger sister, a brilliant watercolourist and ceramist), Mikhail Nesterov, Maria Iakountchikova (future sister-in-law of the artist) ... Abramtsevo even received the nickname of "Russian Barbizon". The Neo Russian style was born within this estate, premise of the national Art Nouveau. Polenov painted among others in Abramtsevo, The Birch Alley in the Park, In the Boat (1880), La Voria (1881) and The Upper Pond in Abramtsevo (1882). He also worked in stage design. Most notably, he decorated Savva Mamontov's mansion in Abramtsevo and his Russian Private Opera. Later, in 1910–1918, Polenov was involved in a folk theatre project.There he met his future wife, Natalia (1858–1931), Maria Iakountchikova's sister. In 1881, Polenov undertook a trip to the Middle East and Egypt to work on the biblical theme. He hopes to find details of daily life and landscapes that will inspire him to represent the life of the Christ. He painted many studies about scenes of the life of Christ but the most famous is Christ and the sinner, his lifetime masterpiece. This painting is considered as the work of his life for both his artistic career as for the realization of his dearest wishes. He first made a real-sized preparatory study in the mansion of Savva Mamontov in Moscow before directly painting the final work that will be part of the fifteenth itinerant exhibition of the winter of 1887. Alexander III will buy it, making the painter financially at ease after this sale. From 1883 to 1895, Polenov coached many young artists at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. His most talented students are Abram Arkhipov, Isaac Levitan, Konstantin Korovin and Alexander Golovine. The artist was very important to the teaching of the technique, being very demanding on the quality of colors and