Valentin Serov (artist): biography and paintings (photo)

It seems that from the very first breath of his Russian artist Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov was doomed to become a uniquely educated and exceptionally developed personality.

In the air, impregnated with art

He was born in St. Petersburg on January 7, 1865 in a musical family belonging to the creative elite of Russian society. Father, Alexander Nikolayevich, was a well-known composer and music critic, mother, Valentina Semenovna, was also a professional composer and wrote articles about music. Their house was always crowded, there were lively conversations about art, interesting scientific and cultural debates. In addition to music, my father was fond of natural sciences, architecture and draw well. He managed to instill this love and his son from early childhood. Perhaps, from this spiritually nutritious wonderful atmosphere, the famous Serov-artist, which in the beginning of the twentieth century the whole world recognized, begins.

Birth of craftsmanship

In the fifth year of life, the boy together with his parents went abroad for the first time. It was a trip to Switzerland, where Alexander met with the great German composer and art theorist Richard Wagner. Perhaps the impressions of those days in their own way were grasped a unique and original gift that Serov-artist will possess.

The biography of the boy suddenly changed direction when his father died suddenly. This happened in 1871. The harmonious life of the family suddenly went wrong. Valentina Semyonovna left abroad, but she did not take her son with her, she left him in Russia. At the Nikolskoye farm in Smolensk province there was a commune of six people, where everything was common. It was organized by raznochintsy. During the day people worked in the fields, and in the evenings they trained the peasants to read and write. It was then that little Tosha Serov, an artist from God, began to paint a lot. In the Nikolsky estate the boy learned the beauty and magic of Russian nature. However, a year later the commune ceased to exist, and the child was sent to his mother in Munich. Here a year later eight-year-old Valentin Serov began to take drawing lessons from the engraver Karl Kepping. The German master was able to discern in the zealous disciple of who he would become after a decade of Serov. The artist gave lessons to a Russian boy every day.

The genius patrons

Someone from the acquaintances advised Valentina Semyonovna to take her son to Ilya Repin, who in 1874 worked on the picture "Sadko" and lived in Paris in Montmartre. The illustrious painter willingly took up the training of the budding artist.

In 1875 the Serovs returned to their homeland. The summer that the mother and son spent at Savva Mamontov's estate, Abramtsevo, was amazing and fruitful. Here the unique manner in which the artist Serov painted in different genres and techniques began to take shape.

First recognition

In the autumn, the boy was identified in the Petersburg boarding school. But in the spring he fell ill, and Valentina Semyonovna decided that for the health of her son they must move to the south. For two years the family, headed by the new husband of the mother Vasily Ivanovich Nemchinov, lived in Kiev, where Valentine attended the gymnasium and continued to learn drawing. The boy's success did not go unheeded by the teachers, and the young Valya Serov was awarded a silver medal at the drawing school. The artist, whose biography is full of meetings and communication with great predecessors, very quickly developed as a master of easel painting.

When the family moved to Moscow in 1878, Repin, who had returned from abroad, already lived and worked there. Classes resumed. The boy went to Repin for the weekend, on Saturday the master gave the student lessons in the drawing, and on Sunday he taught him painting.

In 1880, Ilya Repin undertook a trip to the Crimea in order to collect material for the monumental canvas "Zaporozhets". With the master went on a journey and the beginning artist Serov. Pictures, sketches, sketches of a sixteen-year-old boy were not quite formed yet, but already here he shows himself to be a mature and gifted draftsman. Self-created in these years, strikes the viewer depth of introspection of the young artist. A thoughtful look, tightly closed lips, a sharp play of light and shadow convey the uneasy character and creative boldness of the future master.

Young student

Repin was preparing a talented pupil for admission to the Academy of Arts. Serov was too young, but Ilya Efimovich wrote a convincing letter to the conference secretary of the Academy, and his ward was enrolled there as an auditor. His current teacher Pavel Chistyakov demanded a real student from the young student, and that selflessly worked, without regretting time and energy.

In the summer of 1884 Serov again visited Abramtsevo near Moscow. Here at this time Viktor Vasnetsov worked on the panel for the Historical Museum. That summer the young artist Valentin Serov created one of the remarkable lyrical portraits, he wrote to Lyudmila Mamontov, the niece of the famous patron.

Self-floating

In 1885, Serov and his mother again visited Munich, after which the young man visited Holland. Returning to St. Petersburg, Valentine after a short hesitation left the Academy of Arts. This year he painted a painting "The Oxen" and a portrait of his bride Olga Trubnikova.

1886 was marked in the artist's work by Abramtsev motives. Serov created landscapes "Autumn", "Winter in Abramtsevo", "Pond", again painted a portrait of his beloved at the window.

1887 glorified Serov. He painted the famous "Girl with Peaches" (portrait of a young Vera Savvishna Mamontova). The picture pleases with spontaneity and freshness of colors, an unusually optimistic mood. Another well-known work titled "A Girl Illuminated by the Sun" (a portrait of a cousin - Maria Simonovic) was written a year later by Serov.

The artist, whose biography formed under the influence of a strong friendship with Vladimir Derviz, who acquired an estate in the picturesque village of Domotkanovo, could not help but depict this corner of nature on canvas. Painting "Autumn. Domotkanovo "- this is a special look at the Russian autumn, pensive and mysterious. A wonderful landscape "An overgrown pond", created in the same year, is filled with rare admiration.

So comes the glory

In the winter of 1888, Serov married and left with his wife to France. The next winter the young people spent in Moscow. An Italian celebrity, the opera singer Angelo Mazini, agreed to pose as a well-known artist. In the beginning of the 1890s Serov wrote a number of skilful portraits, among which were portraits of the teacher Ilya Repin, Isaak Levitan, Nikolai Leskov.

Public and professional activities

1894 - the time of travel Serov in the north of Russia, along with another of his talented contemporary - Konstantin Korovin. Artists bring a lot of fresh and interesting sketches and sketches. This year, Valentin Alexandrovich becomes a member of the Association of Wanderers. Since 1897, the artist gave lessons of skill in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, fostering such celebrities as Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Nikolai Sapunov, Konstantin Yuon, Martiros Saryan.

From the second half of the 1890s, Serov's work was marked by excellent genre works "The Woman in the Cart", "The Gray Day", "From the Window of the Manor", "Meeting", "The Woman with the Horse." In 1899, the artist created the famous painting "Children", on which he captured his sons - Sasha and Yura.

The beginning of the 1900s brought to Russian culture a number of remarkable portraits of Serov, which immortalized actress Maria Ermolova, writer Maxim Gorky, singer Fyodor Chaliapin, engineer Emmanuel Nobel, ballerina Anna Pavlov. In those same years, the gifted master was fascinated by historical subjects. Reflections on the extraordinary fate of Russia prompted Serov to create a cycle of magnificent paintings about the era of Peter the Great, his companions and successors. Famous were such paintings as "Peter the Great in Monplaisir", "Departure of Peter II and Elizabeth Petrovna for hunting."

World recognition of the Russian genius

In 1904, Valentin Alexandrovich visited Italy, three years later he went to Greece. Serov's works were recognized as the best at the Roman Exhibition in 1911 and demonstrated to the whole world the mastery of a pan-European scale, as Serov had. The artist, whose brief biography is set forth in this article, was full of great ideas and great undertakings, when a sudden death from a heart disease cut short his life. Valentin Serov died on November 22, 1911 in Moscow. For 46 years of bright and expressive creative life, the artist created about two hundred magnificent unique creations.