Valentin Serov

BY
KRISTIN TORRES
MARCH 7, 2013POSTED IN: ARTISTS, MEDIUMS, PAINTING, TSARIST ERA

Girl with Peaches. 1887, oil on canvas.

Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, born January 7, 1865 (old style, January 19 new style) in St. Petersburg, is
best known as one of the premiere portrait artists of his time. Working between the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, his work represents a drifting away from realism and toward the Impressionist
movement in Russian art. The works for which he is best known show a strong Impressionist influence.
Serov was born to an artistic family. His father was A.N. Serov, an opera composer, and his mother was
Valentina Bergman, also a composer and a musician. Though he didnt follow in his familys musical
footsteps, his talents as an artist did not go unnoticed, even at a very young age. After the death of her
husband, Serovs mother took the boy to Paris to encourage and facilitate his artistic training in painting. In
Paris, he tutored under the famed Ilya Repin, and Repins influence is very visible particularly in Serovs
early work. Repin advised his student to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Petersburg, where Serov
received much of his formative education. Although the Serov family was struggling financially, they were
aided by a wealthy entrepreneur and patron of the arts, Savva Mamontov. Mamontov allowed the Serovs
to live with him at his estate while Valentin remained a student.

Sunlit Girl. 1881, oil on canvas.

At the Academy, Serov studied for five years from 1880 to 1885 but left school before graduating. As a
student and in his early career, he dabbled in graphic artistry, stage designing, and book illustrations. His
portrait work, however, is what he remains best known for. Perhaps his most recognizable work is his 1887
Girl with Peaches. This is a portrait of Vera Mamontova, the eldest daughter of Savva, who had opened
his home to Valentin and his mother. The 91 in x in 85 oil on canvas painting is now in the State Tretyakov
Gallery in Moscow. Vera is seated at a dining table at the Mamontov estate, Abramstsevo. The
Abramstsevo estate was an important figure in the late 1880s, as it was also the site of a burgeoning
colony of artists especially interested in ridding Western influence from Russian art.
The portrait of Mamontova, according to the Tretyakov Gallery description that accompanies it, provided
the roadmap for the development of Russian Impressionism. The piece is a mix of cool, white, and grey
tones broken up by the bright figure of the young girl at the compositions center. Her dress is a pastel
pink, the bow across her chest a smattering of black but broken up by a flower placed in the bows middle,
and her dark hair is in harmony with pieces the dark, wooden accents. The natural light captured as it
comes in the window matches the subdued orange color of the fruit she holds in her hand. Serov
masterfully captured the girls expression and body language, depicting an impatient but tolerant youth,
sitting for a portrait while the world outside awaits her. The artist achieves here a balance between the
girls state of mind and the world around her, reads the Tretyakov description of this piece.
Even in 1888s Sunlit Girl, Portrait of M.Y. Simonovich, Serovs colors are shady and subdued, while the
most luminous parts of the painting are on the subjects face. Thus is produced the image of
interpenetration of sunlight and of the light of the human soul, reads the Tretyakov description. The
subjects belt, her hair, and a row of trees behind her unify this composition in dark tones, made light again
by her warm face and light eyes. These early works are representative of Serovs preferred color scheme.
While he includes color, his chosen shades were usually soft pastels and not like the rich, bright hues that
were characteristic before his emergence around the mid-1880s.

Portrait of K.A.Korovin. 1891, oil on canvas.

After these early paintings helped establish him as an artist, Serov joined the Peredvizhniki. While a part of
that group he was commissioned to paint portraits of many important figures. The dark brown and black
tones of even the light Girl with Peaches are seen again in works like the 1897 commissioned portrait of
Grand Duke Pavel Aleksandrovich, also on display at the Tretyakov Museum. His landscapes were
likewise dimly lit and colored with subdued earthy shades, including 1985s October, Domotkanovo. His
color use is often strategic, as seen in 1891s Portrait of K. A. Korovin. In this portrait of his painter friend,
Serov uses earthy, dark colors in every part of the painting, except for the red and white striped pillow
where Korovin rests his right arm. The color here was meant highlight Korovin as an artist and the brush in
his right hand.
Another distinctive work is his 1907 Peter I, which depicts the Russian tsar in brooding colors. The piece
depicts Peter as an architect and an automaton. Viewers see Peter from the perspective of from the
ground up, emphasizing the grandeur of the emperors rushing figure, reads the accompanying Tretyakov
description. Serov said of Peter He walked in enormous strides, with all his retinue having to follow him
at a run. I can imagine what a monster that man was in the eyes of foreigners, what a terror he was to the
people of St. Petersburg at the time. Serov captures this sentiment clearly, as Peter is shown upright and
tall, his followers hunched over and scurrying to keep up with the towering, hasty tsar.

Peter I. 1907, oil on canvas.

In the early 1900s, Serov broke with the Peredvizhniki and became more closely associated with the
Russian art magazine and group Mir iskusstva, or World of Art art nouveau movement. This group was
dissatisfied with what they saw as low artistic standards set forth by the Peredvizhniki, and wanted to hold
up principles of the emerging Art Nouveau. This movement sought a departure from so-called academic
art and ushered in a taste for structures and lines inspired by natural forms flowers, plants, curvature in
nature. The influence of this movement is seen perhaps most clearly in works like his 1910 The Rape of

Europa, which marks

a very different turn for Serovs works. Figures in this work are much flatter, his paintbrush stroke much
broader, and the curves found in the waves of the ocean to the horns of the bull are exaggerated.
Before his death in Moscow in 1911, Serov also experimented with sculpture, re-creating his earlier
painting The Rape of Europa painting in bronze.
Serov is known for his skills in portraiture and his eye for color. However, perhaps even more important
was his his willingness to depart from the techniques that made him famous and his eagerness to try new
methods. These helped cement him as one of the Russian masters.
Kristin Torres has studied Russian language and literature at the University of Missouri-Columbia and at
the Summer Workshop in Slavic and Eastern Languages at Indiana University Bloomington. An aspiring
arts and culture journalist, she has a particular focus on Eastern European film and literature. A former
intern on the Arts Desk at National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. and at California and Missouri
affiliates KQED and KBIA, she hopes to further develop her research and arts reporting skills on the Home
and Abroad: Art program in St. Petersburg.

Kristin Torres