G. Chulimov. Icon of the Mother of God Hodegetria of Smolensk, 1853

The icon "Mother of God Hodegetria of Smolensk" was painted in 1853 in Rostov-on-Don. The catalogue names its author as G. Chulimov. For a 19th-century icon, the painter's name and an exact date are by no means always known.

The Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God is one of the most venerated images in Russia. It belongs to the Hodegetria iconographic type. According to one tradition, the image came to Rus in 1046: the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachos blessed his daughter Anna with it when she married Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich. In 1095 Vladimir Monomakh moved the icon from Chernigov to Smolensk, which gave it its name.

The icon is painted in oil on a wooden panel over ground and levkas, probably with the use of gilding.