Valentin Serov

Valentin Serov (1865—1911), the son of the opera com­poser had come as a small boy to live at Abramtsevo with his widowed mother in 1874. He grew up in the atmosphere of con­stant creative activity which characterised the Mamontov house­hold. From a very early age Serov was given drawing lessons by Repin, who was very fond of the little boy, and he soon showed himself to be a remarkably precocious draughtsman. He would catch the likeness of a model often more quickly and surely than the older artists in the merry "drawing competitions" which were so much part of this gay, idyllic life of Abramtsevo. This tal­ent for catching a likeness Serov later developed and he became the most successful and brilliant portraitist of the 1890's and first decade of this century. But before this he was a beautiful landscape painter in a more sensuous and less nostalgic vein than his master Levitan. Serov, like Korovin, was a most bene­ficial influence in the Moscow College where he taught from 1900 up till 1909. He was a superb technical master of the many media in which he practised and that too did not fail to impress his students. Surikov had shown him the value of fine colours, a lesson which the revived interest in icons had helped to stress. It was from these ancient panels that Serov also became aware of the significance of the essential in a composition and the unim­portance of the unnecessary, but it was undoubtedly Vrubel who showed Serov the value of responding to a personal emotion­al experience. Serov was thus able to make his mark at the age of twenty-two on exhibiting two paintings, "Girl with Peaches" and "Girl in Sunlight". At the time of painting them he was un­familiar with the works of the French Impressionists, yet he came very close to Renoir in these luminous, sunny, splendidly composed portraits.

"Girl in Sunlight".

Date: 2015-01-02; view: 1390