Valentin Serov: Russian Impressionist Portrait Painter 26/09/2023, 10:31

Valentin Serov
Biography of Russian Impressionist Portrait Painter, Landscape Artist.
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Valentin Serov (1865-1911)

Contents

• Biography
• Early Life and Training
• Impressionist Paintings
• Society Portraits
• Russian Avant-Garde Artist Groups
• Painting Style
• Landscape Paintings

Girl with Peaches (1887)

Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. One of
the greatest modern paintings.

Biography

One of the last great Russian exponents of portrait art before the Bolshevik
revolution, Valentin Serov ranks among the great modern artists of the late
19th century. Born into a privileged, though enlightened family, and schooled
by some of Russia's best portrait artists, his contribution to Russian art - in
particular his pioneer exploration of Impressionism - was immense. Among the
best known masterpieces of his relatively short life are: Girl with Peaches
(1887), Portrait of Isaac Levitan (1893), and Portrait of Maria Yermolova
(1905), all in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; In Summer (1895, Russian
Museum, St Petersburg), and his chilly landscape Colts at a Watering Place,
Domotkanovo (1904, Tretyakov). He remains one of the great Russian artists of
Portrait of a Woman (1895)
Russian Museum, St Petersburg.
the pre-Revolutionary period. See also: Best Impressionist Paintings.

Portrait of Olga Serova (1890)

Russian Museum, St Petersburg.

INFLUENCES ON SEROV'S ART

For a review of earlier painting, see:
Russian Painting, 18th Century and
Russian Painting, 19th Century.

RUSSIAN PAINTERS Early Life and Training

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Valentin Serov: Russian Impressionist Portrait Painter
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Painter, lithographer.
RUSSIAN ART MUSEUMS
Hermitage Gallery St Petersburg
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
WORLDS TOP ARTISTS
For top creative practitioners, see:
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http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-artists/valentin-serov.htm
26/09/2023, 10:31
Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov was born in St Petersburg, to a highly cultured
family: his father Alexander Serov was a composer, as was his mother
Valentina Bergman. Unfortunately, his father died in 1871, when Serov was just
six, and the family moved to Munich. It was here that he began his art training
in 1873-4 under K. Koepping. The following year, he moved to Paris where he
was taught by the famous realist painter Ilya Repin (1844–1930), who gave
him painting lessons in his Paris studio and then allowed him to work with him
in Moscow, almost like an apprentice. Returning to Russia with his mother,
Serov was 15 when he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg.
Here, from 1880 to 1885, he studied under the strict pedagogue Pavel
Tchistykov, became a friend of the symbolist portraitist Mikhail Vrubel (1856–
1910) and met his lifelong friend Vladimir Derviz. Additional influences included
the paintings of European Old Masters he studied at the Hermitage in St
Petersburg and the Louvre in Paris.
Impressionist Paintings
A virtuoso draughtsman, Serov's output included historical scenes, landscapes,
genre paintings and illustrations, but his principal genre was portrait art, in
which he ranks with the likes of John Singer Sargent. In fact, in his style of
painting - realism tinged with Impressionism - his classical au premier coup
technique (one precise stroke of the brush, with no reworking), and his
familiarity with high society, Serov strongly resembled the American artist. He
also delighted in plein air painting: his early Renoir-style canvases Girl with
Peaches (1887), Portrait of Maria Simonovich (1888), and In Summer (1895,
Russian Museum, St Petersburg) derive much of their naturalness to the
interplay of light and shadow. Serov considered both these works to be
"studies" rather than portraits, which was why he gave them descriptive titles
without identifying the sitters.
Society Portraits
As his fame increased during the 1890s, Serov painted portraits of numerous
well known individuals including the artists Konstantin Korovin (1891), Ilya
Repin (1892), Isaac Levitan (1893), Vasily Surikov (1898), Sergei Diaghilev
(1872-1929), and Anna Pavlova (1909); the composers Rimsky-Korsakov
(1898) and Alexander Glazunov (1899); the aristocrats Grand Duchess Olga
Alexandrovna (1893), Countess Varvara Musina-Pushkina (1895), Grand Duke
Pavel Alexandrovich (1897), Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich (1900), Princess
Zinaida Yusupova (1900-2), and Prince Felix Yusupov (1903); as well as Savva
Mamontov (1887), Alexander Pushkin (1899), Maxim Gorki (1904), Henrietta
Girshman (1907) and Ida Rubenstein (1910).
Serov passed a good deal of time at Abramtsevo, the country estate of the
railway tycoon and art patron Savva Mamontov (1841-1918), some 40 miles
north of Moscow. Here, he could work and enjoy the stimulating company of
other artists. Both Girl with Peaches and In Summer were painted at
Abramtsevo: the former's subject was Mamontov's 12-year old daughter Vera;
the subject of In Summer was Serov's wife Olga. The art collector Pavel
Tretyakov (1832-1898) was another of Serov's patrons.
Russian Avant-Garde Artist Groups
During the period 1897-1909, Serov gave lessons at the Moscow School of
Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Among his pupils were the colourist Pavel
Kuznetsov (1878-1968), the flower-painter N.N. Sapunov (1880-1912), the
portraitist and landscape artist Martiros Saryan (1880–1972), the symbolist
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939), and the wonderful view painter Konstantin
Yuon (1875-1958). He was also an active participant in a variety of avant-
garde artist-groups and their exhibitions, including the Itinerants (Wanderers)
(1894-1899), the World of Art Association (Mir Iskusstva) (1899-1903) and the
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Valentin Serov: Russian Impressionist Portrait Painter 26/09/2023, 10:31

Union of Russian Artists (1903-1909).

For more about the progressive Russian artist-group known as The

Association of Travelling Art Exhibitions (aka The Wanderers,
Itinerants, or peredvizhniki), see the genre painters Vasily Perov
(1833-82), Konstantin Savitsky (1844-1905), the portraitist Ivan
Kramskoy (1837-1887)and the biblical artist Vasily Polenov (1844-
1927).

Serov was elected a member of the Imperial Academy of Art in 1903, the year
before he painted Colts at a Watering Place, Domotkanovo (1904, Tretyakov
Gallery Moscow), his intensely evocative depiction of horses in an icy half-lit
landscape. Although as it happened, the suppression of the 1905 Uprising
caused him to quit the Academy in protest.

Painting Style

As a painter, Serov is seen as the first Russian Impressionist - his composition

Girl with Peaches initiated the style in Russia, although it wasn't until after he
had completed it that he became acquainted with the work of the French
Impressionists. His loose Impressionistic style was continued in numerous
intimate portraits of women and children, such as Portrait of Mika Morozov
(1901, Tretyakov). However, as noted above, he also produced a wide range of
society portraits in a realist style, which owes more to Velazquez and
Rembrandt than Claude Monet or Pierre Renoir. Lastly, completely different
from any of his other paintings is his famous female nude Portrait of Ida
Rubinstein (1910, tempera and charcoal on paper, Russian Museum, St
Petersburg).

Landscape Paintings

In addition, Serov executed a number of beautiful examples of landscape

painting, such as Pond in Abramtsevo (1886); The Overgrown Pond,
Domotkanovo (1888); Village (1898); Watermill in Finland (1902); while his
historical paintings include: Peter II and Princess Elizabeth Petrovna Riding to
Hounds (1900), and Peter the Great (1907). His paintings now hang in the best
art museums throughout Russia and the Ukraine.

After a comparatively short life, Valentin Serov passed away in Moscow on

December 5, 1911, at the age of 46. He was buried at the Novodevichiye
Cemetery.

For high quality decorative art, by Serov's contemporary, the St

Petersburg goldsmith and jeweller Carl Fabergé (1846-1920),
please see: Fabergé Easter Eggs.

• For more biographies of Russian artists, see: Famous Painters.

• For more information about 19th century painting in Russia, see: Homepage.

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