About Everything

Written on August 30, 2010 – 3:40 am | by admin |

Valentin Serov

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (January 19, 1865 – December 5, 1911) was a Russian painter, and one of the premier portrait artists of his era.
Serov was born in St. Petersburg, son of the Russian composer Alexander Serov, and his wife Valentina Bergman, a composer of German-Jewish[1] and English background. In his childhood he studied in Paris and Moscow under Ilya Repin and in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1880–1885) under Pavel Chistyakov. Serov’s early creativity was sparked by the realistic art of Repin and strict pedagogical system of Chistyakov. Further influences on Serov were the old master paintings he viewed in the museums of Russia and Western Europe, friendships with Mikhail Vrubel and (later) Konstantin Korovin, and the creative atmosphere of the Abramtsevo Colony, to which he was closely connected.
The greatest works of Serov’s early period were portraits: The girl with peaches (1887), and The girl covered by the Sun (1888), both in the Tretyakov Gallery. In these paintings Serov concentrated on spontaneity of perception of the model and nature. In the development of light and color, the complex harmony of reflections, the sense of atmospheric saturation, and the fresh picturesque perception of the world, there appeared the features of early Russian impressionism.
During his late period, which began in 1900, Serov was a member of “The World of art”, an influential Russian art association and magazine which grew, in part, out of dissatisfaction with the Itinerants movement. At the turn of the century, Serov was at a stylistic turning point: features of impressionism disappeared from his work, and his modernistic style developed, but the characteristic truthful and realistic comprehension of the nature of his subjects remained constant.
The last years of Serov’s life were marked by works on themes from classical mythology. While addressing images from the ancient tradition, Serov endowed classical subject matter with a personal interpretation.
Valentin Serov died in Moscow on December 5, 1911.

Self portrait, 1880s
Oil on canvas, Private collection ▼

Portrait of Lialia (Adelaida) Simonovich, 1880
Oil on canvas, The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Self portrait, 1883
Pencil on paper, The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Bullocks, 1885
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Autumn evening. Domotcanovo, 1886
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

By the window. Portrait of Olga Trubnikova, 1886
Oil on canvas mounted on cardboard
The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Open window. Lilacs, 1886
Oil on canvas, The Art Museum of Belarus
Minsk, Belarus ▼

St. Mark Plaza in Venice, 1887
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Seaside in Venice, 1887
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Terrace in Vvedensk, 1880s
Oil on canvas, The Museum of Russian Art
Erevan, Armenia ▼

Girl with peaches. Portrait of Vera Mamontova, 1887
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

The overgrown pond. Domotcanovo, 1888
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Nadezhda Derviz with her child, 1889
Oil on iron plate, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Adelaida Simonovich, 1889
Oil on canvas, The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Portrait of the artist Konstantin Korovin, 1891
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of the artist Ilya Repin, 1892
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of the artist Isaac Levitan, 1893
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

The White Sea, 1894
Oil on cardboard, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Liudmila Mamontova, 1894
Oil on canvas, Private collection ▼

Portrait of Maria Lvova, 1895
Oil on canvas, Private collection ▼

October. Domotcanovo, 1895
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Summertime. Portrait of Olga Serova, 1895
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Peasant woman in a cart, 1896
Oil on canvas, The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Tundra. Travelling by deer, 1896
Gouache, graphite on paper
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia ▼

Coronation of the Emperor Nicholas II in the Uspensky Cathedral, 1896
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Sasha Serov, 1897
Watercolor, whitewash on paper
Private collection ▼

Portrait of Maria Morozova, 1897
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich, 1897
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

In winter, 1898
Gouache, pastel on cardboard
The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

In a village. Peasant woman with a horse, 1898
Pastel on paper mounted on cardboard
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia ▼

Herd, 1890s
Charcoal, gouache, and chalk on paper
Private collection ▼

Portrait of the Composer Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, 1898
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Alexander Pushkin on a Park Bench, 1899
Graphite, watercolor, whitewash on paper
The State Museum of Alexander Pushkin
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Portrait of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich, 1900
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Grand Duke Georgy Mikhailovich, 1901
Oil on canvas, The A. N. Radishchev Museum of Arts
Saratov, Russia ▼

Haystack, 1901
Oil on canvas, The Picture Gallery of Armenia
Erevan, Armenia ▼

Mika Morozov, 1901
Oil on canvas, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Rinsing linen. On the river, 1901
Oil on cardboard, Whereabouts unknown ▼

Farm yard in Finland, 1902
Oil on cardboard, The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of princess Zinaida Yusupova, 1902
Oil on canvas
The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Portrait of prince Felix Yusupov, count Sumarokov-Elstone, 1903
Oil on canvas
The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Portrait of count Felix Sumarokov-Elstone, later Prince Yusupov, 1903
Oil on canvas
The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Bathing of a horse, 1905
Oil on canvas
The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Portrait of P. Semenov-Tien-Shansky, 1905
Charcoal, color pencils, chalk on paper
The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Horses on a shore, 1905
Oil on canvas
The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Portrait of the poet Konstantin Balmont, 1905
Pastel on paper mounted on cardboard
The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Nikolay Pozniakov, 1908
Oil on canvas
The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Anna Pavlova in the Ballet Sylphyde, 1909
Tempera on canvas
The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

Portrait of Margarita Morozova, 1910
Oil on canvas
Art Museum of Dnepropetrovsk
Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine ▼

Portrait of Ida Rubenstein, 1910
Tempera and charcoal on canvas
The Russian Museum
St. Petersburg, Russia ▼

The rape of Europe, 1910
Oil on canvas
The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Alexei Stakhovich, 1911
Oil on canvas
The Memorial Museum of Konstantin Stanislavsky
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Vladimir Girshman, 1911
Oil on canvas
The Tretyakov Gallery
Moscow, Russia ▼

Portrait of Ivan Morozov
Tempera on cardboard
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia ▼