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Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Paintings

The rape of Europa Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

The rape of Europa

Girl with peaches. Portrait of V.S. Mamontova Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Girl with peaches. Portrait of V.S. Mamontova

Portrait of a Lady said to be Maria Vasilievna Yakunchikova Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of a Lady said to be Maria Vasilievna Yakunchikova

Winter in Abramtsevo Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Winter in Abramtsevo

A Breton Woman Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

A Breton Woman

Portrait of Nicholas II Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of Nicholas II

Portrait of Henriette Girshman Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of Henriette Girshman

Portrait of Praskovia Anatolievna Mamontova Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of Praskovia Anatolievna Mamontova

Portrait of Emmanuel Nobel Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of Emmanuel Nobel

Ida Rubenstein Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Ida Rubenstein

Portrait of Princess Olga Orlova Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of Princess Olga Orlova

Portrait of Pope Innocent X after Velazquez Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of Pope Innocent X after Velazquez

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Autumn Evening, Domotkanowo

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Children

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of the Italian Singer Angelo Masini

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Portrait of the Artist I. I. Levitan

Nude Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Nude

Standing Nude Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Standing Nude

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The rape of Europa Print by Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

The rape of Europa

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (Russian: Валенти́н Алекса́ндрович Серо́в; 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] background. In his childhood he studied in 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.

Early works

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.
Portraiture and success
Valentin Serov - Portrait of Princess Olga Orlova

From 1890 on, the portrait became the basic genre in Serov's art. It was in this field that his early style would become apparent, the paintings notable for the psychologically pointed characteristics of his subjects. Serov's favorite models were actors, artists, and writers (Konstantin Korovin, 1891, Isaac Levitan, 1893, Nikolai Leskov, 1894, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, 1898, - all in the Tretyakov gallery).

Initially abstaining from the polychromatic, brightly colored painting style of the 1880s, Serov often preferred a dominant scale of black-grey or brown tones. Impressionistic features appeared sometimes in composite construction of a portrait, or to capture a sense of spontaneous movement. As in the work of his contemporaries John Singer Sargent and Anders Zorn, the impressionism is not doctrinaire, but derives as much from the study of Hals and Velázquez as from modern theory. Receiving wide popularity, in 1894 Serov joined with the Peredvizhniki (The Itinerants), and took on important commissions, among them portraits of grand duke Pavel Alexandrovich, (1897, Tretyakov Gallery), S.M. Botkin, 1899, and F.F. Yusupova, 1903 as well as Princess Olga Orlova (these in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg). In these truthful, compositionally skillful, and picturesque executions in the grand manner, Serov consistently used linear-rhythmic drawing coupled with decorative color combinations.
The girl with peaches (1887) was the painting that inaugurated Russian Impressionism.

At the same time, he developed a contrasting direction: he frequently produced intimate, heartfelt, chamber portraits, mainly of children and women. In portraits of children Serov aspired to capture pose and gesture, to reveal and emphasize a spontaneity of internal movement, sincere cleanliness and clearness of attitude of the child (Children, 1899, Russian Museum; Mika Morozov, 1901, Tretyakov gallery). Serov frequently called upon various graphic techniques - watercolors, pastels, lithographs and so forth. Figures in Serov's portraits gradually became more and more graphically refined and economical, particularly during the late period (Vasily Kachalov, 1908, Tamara Karsavina, 1909; numerous figures from Ivan Krylov's fables, 1895–1911). From 1890 to 1900 Serov produced many landscape compositions on country themes, in which the artistic direction took a romantic turn.
Marriage and family

Serov married Olga Trubnikova in 1887. His wife and his children were the subject of many of his works. Notably, his painting "Children" was of his sons Yura and Sasha.


Late work
Valentin Serov - Portrait of Helena Roerich, 1909

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 start of the 20th 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. In the early 20th century Serov created heroic portrait images; within the genre of the fashionable portrait, Serov focused on the dramatic depiction of creative artists, writers, actors, and musicians of import: Maxim Gorki's portraits (1904), A.M. Gorki's museum, Moscow; Maria Yermolova (1905), Feodor Chaliapin (charcoal, 1905) - both in the Tretyakov Gallery, and Helena Roerich (1909).

Serov's democratic beliefs were clearly shown during the Revolution from 1905 to 1907: he depicted a number of satirical figures exposing chastisers. A full member of the St.Petersburg Academy of Arts since 1903, in 1905 he resigned as a gesture of protest against the execution of striking workers and their families on 9 January, Bloody Sunday. His late creativity found expression in historical painting (Peter II departure and Empress Elizabeth Petrovna on hunting, 1900, Russian Museum), and depth of comprehension of the historical maintenance of an epoch (Peter I, distemper, 1907, Tretyakov Gallery).

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 died in Moscow on 5 December 1911. He is buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Legacy

The best works of Serov are among the greatest of Russian realistic art. He taught in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture from 1897 to 1909), and among his students were Pavel Kuznetsov, N. N. Sapunov, Martiros Saryan, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, N.P. Ulyanov, and Konstantin Yuon.

A minor planet, 3547 Serov, discovered by Soviet astronomer Lyudmila Zhuravlyova in 1978 is named after him.[2]

References

Валентина Серова: служение музыкальной культуре at lechaim.ru

Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names (5th ed.). New York: Springer Verlag. p. 298. ISBN 3-540-00238-3.

External links

Valentin Serov official website
www.Valentin-Aleksandrovich-Serov.org Images by Valentin Serov, biography, eCard, slideshow and more
Valentin Serov. Biography and the best pictures. Excellent quality of reproductions.
http://www.newint.org/features/1999/01/01/309labour1.jpg

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