Portrait

Whistler and Russia

Galina Andreeva

Magazine issue: 
Special issue N1. USA–RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

Early in the 1990s a professor from Simon Fraser University in Canada, Evelyn Harden, was working in the Tretyakov Gallery archives. Preparing for the publication of the journals of James McNeill Whistler's mother, she requested help in searching for information about the artist's Russian mentor, Alexander Koritsky. It was Evelyn Harden who drew my attention to a little known but important fact in Whistler's biography - the years he spent in Russia, the country that this unconventional individual, with a penchant for "deliberate pranksterism" and hoaxes, called the cradle of his talent. As a researcher of the international contacts associated with Russian art, I became interested in the subject of Whistler and Russia because of its apparent impossibility. Fifteen years later this project has materialized in the exhibition "Whistler and Russia" which is to be held at the Tretyakov Gallery from 7 December 2006 to 15 February 2007. It will be one of the most remarkable events in the international programme celebrating the Tretyakov Gallery's 150th anniversary.

Whistler and Russia

Early in the 1990s a professor from Simon Fraser University in Canada, Evelyn Harden, was working in the Tretyakov Gallery archives. Preparing for the publication of the journals of James McNeill Whistler's mother, she requested help in searching for information about the artist's Russian mentor, Alexander Koritsky.

America in Léon Bakst’s Life and Art

Yelena Terkel

Article: 
EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS
Magazine issue: 
Special issue N2. USA–RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

America in the eyes of the artists, actors and musicians of the Silver Age of Russian culture was an enigmatic and fabulously rich country - a country to go to on a tour or to earn money. Only a handful of such artists gradually came to view the New World as not just a source of income but also as a special cultural hub with distinct traditions and roots. One such was Léon Bakst, the Russian artist of international renown who spent the second half of his life in France.

America in Leon Bakst’s Life and Art

America in the eyes of the artists, actors and musicians of the Silver Age of Russian culture was an enigmatic and fabulously rich country - a country to go to on a tour or to earn money. Only a handful of such artists gradually came to view the New World as not just a source of income but also as a special cultural hub with distinct traditions and roots. One such was Léon Bakst, the Russian artist of international renown who spent the second half of his life in France.

The European Peregrination of Zoran Mušič

Giovanna Dal Bon

Article: 
“GRANY” FOUNDATION PRESENTS
Magazine issue: 
Special issue. ITALY-RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

Last December Venice paid homage to Zoran Music (1909-2005) with an exhibition, “Estreme figure”, commemorating the centenary of his birth. Hosted by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, it saluted an artist of international standing, viewed as one of the key figures of the 20th century, who hailed from Dalmatia and became Venetian by adoption. With an oeuvre spanning almost the whole of the last century, his austere, minimal style is indicative of a process of paring things down to their essence. The city on the lagoon proved a source of inspiration and constant point of reference for the artist throughout his career, as a place of fusion between East and West.

The European Peregrination of Zoran Music

Last December Venice paid homage to Zoran Mušič (1909-2005) with an exhibition, “Estreme figure”, commemorating the centenary of his birth. Hosted by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, it saluted an artist of international standing, viewed as one of the key figures of the 20th century, who hailed from Dalmatia and became Venetian by adoption. With an oeuvre spanning almost the whole of the last century, his austere, minimal style is indicative of a process of paring things down to their essence.

"Meeting Modigliani" - at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

Vitaly Mishin

Article: 
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Magazine issue: 
Special issue. ITALY-RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

The exhibition’s title makes clear that this is the first truly extensive show of works by the brilliant Italian master in Russia. The artistic legacy of Modigliani is scattered all over the world, in museums and private collections - and only international exhibition projects would have a chance to present any significant number of works by this artist, even if for a limited time only. Over 20 museums and private collections in Europe and America participated in the Moscow project. Ultimately, the exhibition organizers have managed to present 25 paintings, one sculpture, and 27 drawings, accompanied with the archive materials. (Russian museums own only two works of the master - drawings in the Pushkin Museum collection).

"Meeting Modigliani" - at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts

The exhibition’s title makes clear that this is the first truly extensive show of works by the brilliant Italian master in Russia. The artistic legacy of Modigliani is scattered all over the world, in museums and private collections - and only international exhibition projects would have a chance to present any significant number of works by this artist, even if for a limited time only. Over 20 museums and private collections in Europe and America participated in the Moscow project.

ALEXEI ISUPOV BETWEEN RUSSIA AND ITALY

Irina Lyubimova

Article: 
RUSSIA’S GOLDEN MAP
Magazine issue: 
Special issue. ITALY-RUSSIA: ON THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

Alexei Vladimirovich Isupov dedicated his whole life to art and was shaped by his years at the Moscow School of Painting, and later absorbed a great deal from Impressionism and the work of the Italian Renaissance masters. But he kept his distinctive style and remained true to the idea that excited the generation of painters of the turn of the 20th century — “the embodiment of the great beauty of everything alive”.

ALEXEI ISUPOV BETWEEN RUSSIA AND ITALY

 

The "Girl with Peaches": who is she?

Sergei Chernyshev

Article: 
EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2015 (48)

Serov’s famous painting “Girl with Peaches” depicts my grandmother Vera Mamontova in her childhood. I never met her. She died when her daughter, my mother, was only just two. During her short life she managed to accomplish everything that was expected from a woman of her milieu at that time. She was an obedient daughter, a loving sister, a bride who suffered separation from her bridegroom, a caring mother... Her surviving letters, as well as the reminiscences of those who knew her, reveal much about her life.

The "Girl with Peaches": who is she?

Serov’s famous painting “Girl with Peaches” depicts my grandmother Vera Mamontova in her childhood. I never met her. She died when her daughter, my mother, was only just two. During her short life she managed to accomplish everything that was expected from a woman of her milieu at that time. She was an obedient daughter, a loving sister, a bride who suffered separation from her bridegroom, a caring mother... Her surviving letters, as well as the reminiscences of those who knew her, reveal much about her life.

A master of Children’s Portraiture

Suzanna Serova

Article: 
FOUNDATION “GRANY. ART - CRYSTAL - BRUT” PRESENTS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2015 (48)

Artists have always been drawn to the singularity of childhood, that time in an individual’s life when one’s perception of the world is not yet clouded, and when a child looks at everything in it with happiness and trust. In Western European art, images of the Madonna and child express the inseparability of motherhood and childhood, the connection of both blood and spirit that demands protection, love and empathy.

A master of Children’s Portraiture

Artists have always been drawn to the singularity of childhood, that time in an individual’s life when one’s perception of the world is not yet clouded, and when a child looks at everything in it with happiness and trust.

In Western European art, images of the Madonna and child express the inseparability of motherhood and childhood, the connection of both blood and spirit that demands protection, love and empathy.

From "Memoirs" by Maria Favorskaya (Derviz)

Publication by Ivan Shakhovskoy[1]

Article: 
FOUNDATION “GRANY. ART - CRYSTAL - BRUT” PRESENTS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2015 (48)

The painter and graphic artist Maria Favorskaya (1887-1959) wrote her “Memoirs” in the 1950s. Her father Vladimir (von) Derviz (1859-1937), a watercolour artist, studied at the Academy of Arts together with Valentin Serov and Mikhail Vrubel, who became his lifelong friends. Vladimir Derviz also graduated from the Imperial School of Jurisprudence, and in 1885 he married Nadezhda Simonovich (1866-1908), Serov’s cousin. With his inheritance from his father, a St. Petersburg senator, Vladimir bought an estate close to Tver, Domotkanovo. Nadezhda had always wanted to live in the country, and her husband, while enjoying painting watercolours of the surrounding countryside, actively participated in the work of the “Zemstvo” (local council) and, until his wife’s death, in the improvement of his household and those of local peasants.

From "Memoirs" by Maria Favorskaya (Derviz)

The painter and graphic artist Maria Favorskaya (1887-1959) wrote her “Memoirs” in the 1950s. Her father Vladimir (von) Derviz (1859-1937), a watercolour artist, studied at the Academy of Arts together with Valentin Serov and Mikhail Vrubel, who became his lifelong friends. Vladimir Derviz also graduated from the Imperial School of Jurisprudence, and in 1885 he married Nadezhda Simonovich (1866-1908), Serov’s cousin. With his inheritance from his father, a St. Petersburg senator, Vladimir bought an estate close to Tver, Domotkanovo.

Serov’s Women: two portraits, two lives

Irina Mironova

Article: 
HERITAGE
Magazine issue: 
#3 2015 (48)

Behind the images of women in portraits by Valentin Serov, as well as Mikhail Vrubel, Boris Kustodiev and Konstantin Somov, are lasting notions of a certain look, disposition and character typical of “the fair sex”. Both Cleopatra Obninskaya and Yelena Balina belonged to the type called a “Serov woman”, whose beauty was equal to their soulfulness, dignity and grace.

Serov’s Women: two portraits, two lives

Behind the images of women in portraits by Valentin Serov, as well as Mikhail Vrubel, Boris Kustodiev and Konstantin Somov, are lasting notions of a certain look, disposition and character typical of “the fair sex”. Both Cleopatra Obninskaya and Yelena Balina belonged to the type called a “Serov woman”, whose beauty was equal to their soulfulness, dignity and grace.

Valentin Serov and Leon Bakst. Seeking an ideal

Yelena Terkel

Article: 
EXCLUSIVE PUBLICATIONS
Magazine issue: 
#3 2015 (48)

Valentin Serov (1865-1911) appeared reserved, earnest, and sombre; Leon Bakst (1866-1924) was vibrant, unpredictable and a little funny - a dedicated dandy. What was it that brought together these two artists, so unlike one another? Why did their fondness for one another grow in the years after they met while publishing “Mir Iskusstva” (World of Art) magazine? The answer seems simple and complicated at the same time: deep down, they were looking for something indiscernibly similar. While their public personas were so different, both used them to protect their respective creative selves from the rude intrusions of outsiders. Both artists were successful and famous, each in his own unique way; both were chasing their dreams and looking for new paths and expressions, while remaining honest and true to themselves in their artistic pursuits.

Valentin Serov and Leon Bakst. Seeking an ideal

Valentin Serov (1865-1911) appeared reserved, earnest, and sombre; Leon Bakst (1866-1924) was vibrant, unpredictable and a little funny - a dedicated dandy. What was it that brought together these two artists, so unlike one another? Why did their fondness for one another grow in the years after they met while publishing “Mir Iskusstva” (World of Art) magazine? The answer seems simple and complicated at the same time: deep down, they were looking for something indiscernibly similar.

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