Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

V.G.Vinterfel'd, St. Petersburg
Possibly P.A.Lezin, Moscow

St Petersburg, Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, 1914, no.52
Moscow, Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, 1914, no.49
Malmö, The Baltic Exhibition, 15 May - 4 October 1914, no.3218 titled Porträt av ung flicka
Stockholm, Swedish Art Association, Exhibition of Russian Art, 21 February - 9 March 1919, No. 65a

I.Grabar, Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov: zhizn' i tvorchestvo, Moscow: Knebel, 1913, illustrated p.57 with incorrect date, p.70, p.284 listed under works for 1887
V.Dmitriev, Valentin Serov, Petrograd: Svobodnoe iskusstvo, 1917, listed p.51
Exhibition Catalogue Exhibition of Russian Art, Stockholm: Swedish Art Association, 1919, No.65a listed p.19
I.Grabar, Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, zhizn' i tvorchestvo, Moscow, 1965, p.81, listed under works for 1887 p.329

‘What is remarkable is that the very first paintings of Serov … are beautiful'  observed Alexander Benois in 1901. 'Already here, with astonishing ease, are resolved wonderful chords, already here is expressed a striving for the harmony of the whole.’ Painted when the artist was just 22, the offered portrait of Praskovia Mamontova (1873—1845) is one of Serov's earliest finished paintings, and we see here a noteworthy demonstration of his powers of painting, composition and observation. The portrait's vivid characterisation is completely integrated with the abstract visual experience of the work, and carries such an immediacy of impression that we feel like we are looking at Praskovia through Serov's eyes.

Valentin Serov considered Elizaveta Mamontova his second mother, and was very close to the children of her husband Savva and his publisher brother, Anatoly. This is why in this 1887 painting of Anatoly's then fourteen-year-old daughter Praskovia, Serov regards her not as an aloof observer, but with tenderness and humour. We see her slumped slightly in a chair in a corner, awkward and sullen, pouting and looking upwards into the distance, away from the artist. The endless sittings Serov demanded from his subjects were a challenge for most, more so for a restless adolescent. In the lines of Praskovia's thin shoulders and stiff dress one feels that she cannot wait to spring out of the seat and be free of the artist's piercing gaze. Indeed, Serov's own daughter Olga remembered, ‘Everyone [of his sitters] was afraid of his all-seeing eye.’ Writing to his future wife the year this portrait was created, the artist recounted, ‘I am painting faces – portraits – both commissions and for my own pleasure....now I am painting one girl whose has a wonderful little face.’ And yet what is interesting is that when the artist paints Praskovia again a mere two years later in 1889, her pose and character are vastly different: she faces the viewer with confidence, interest and engagement, even confrontation (fig.2).

Visually, the 1887 portrait is a work of stunning subtlety and harmony. Using a narrow range of light and shade as well as colour, the artist captures the tones and textures of his model's translucent young skin, unruly hair, and starched dress. Each of these is then mirrored elsewhere, to create balance. The red tint of the dress is reflected in the dusty pink of one wall, the pale flesh tones of her face are set off by the cool beige-grey of the second, and the dark brown curls framing her head reappear in the shape and colour of the chair rail enveloping her shoulders and arms. Here, even before Girl with Peaches depicting Praskovia's cousin, Vera (fig.3), we see the true nature of Serov's genius―the capturing of a complete impression through the laborious distillation of the observed. As Grabar writes, 'The [portrait] is a serious study and belongs to one of the most important periods of Serov's oeuvre.' (I.Grabar, Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, zhizn' i tvorchestvo, Moscow, 1965, p.81)

This exceptional work was formerly owned by the businessman and well-known art collector, Vasily Georgievich Vinterfel’d (1878-1937). Born in St. Petersburg, where he made his fortune as a commercial advisor, he later emigrated to France. His collection of early 20^th century Russian paintings included Vasily Surikov’s 1912 masterpiece The Tsarevna’s Visit to the Convent (The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow).

We are grateful to Anna Winestein, Creative Director of the Hermitage Museum Foundation, USA and Executive Director of the Ballets Russes Cultural Partnership, for providing this note.