Why the artist Serov was waiting for a wedding with an orphan for 9 years

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Sometimes you have to wonder how much the fate of some people overlaps with the fate of others. Revealing this burning topic, I would like to tell you about the amazing love story of the famous Russian artist Valentin Serov and Olga Trubnikova, who later became his wife, faithful friend, constant muse, mother of six children.

Why Valentin Serov's choice fell on the orphan Olya Trubnikova, a modest girl with the face of an angel, will become clear when you look into the biography of the artist, who spent most of his childhood in other people's homes. That is why, choosing a companion for his life, he strove to find one that would give him the warmth of the hearth, create comfort, and surround him with love and care. And he found one in Olya's face.

He

Valentine's father was a famous composer and music critic. He died when the boy was 6 years old, so he did not remember him well. The mother was twenty-five years younger than her father. As a very young girl, she took music lessons from him. And soon, falling in love with her teacher, she marries him, leaves school and gives birth to a son.

Widowed after a while, Valentina Semyonovna decided to write music herself, but for this she had to study composition and music theory. Her son interfered with her, and she sent him to her friend, Princess Drutskaya. From those times, little Valya remembered one story: somehow, for a childish prank, Princess Drutskaya tore apart a drawing of the future artist, and he secretly cut her favorite dress.

Later, she and her mother lived in Germany and France, where she also placed her son in other people's families. And at the same time she studied composer in fits and starts at European conservatories. Upon returning to Russia, she meets a nihilist student Vasily Nemchinov, to whom she will soon go to live in Ukraine with Valentin. The common-law husband immediately got along with the son of his chosen one. And everything would be possible, if not for one circumstance. The cholera epidemic that began at that time forced Valentina Semyonovna and her son to flee back to Moscow. Nemchinov stayed at home, he treated the peasants for some time, and having contracted cholera, he died.

Mother was forced to take up composing activity again. By the way, she was the first female composer in Russia. And she identified her son as a student to her friend, the artist Ilya Repin. At the same time, little Valya did not like to study at all, and when he was sent to the gymnasium, it ruined the life of both him and the teachers - there was no worse student in the class. But everyone admired his drawings.

Later, remembering his unfortunate science, Serov will never regret that he was expelled from the gymnasium after the third year of study. Neither a teenager, nor an already formed artist, he absolutely did not understand why he needed these long, tedious and useless studies. Valentine does well without knowing integrals, French and Latin. From the above, it becomes completely clear that if the boy's father were alive, everything in his life would have turned out differently.

Subsequently, Serov's mentor, Ilya Repin, recommended the talented young man to Professor Chistyakov, who taught at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. But Valentin Alexandrovich did not graduate from this educational institution either: he took everything he could there and set out on a free voyage, earning a living by painting. The mother flew into a rage, having moved to St. Petersburg, she dreamed that her son would study, and she would manage the household - why not an idyll? In her old age, she finally showed maternal love for her offspring. However, Valentin was already completely useless of this love.

He had filial feelings for other women who replaced his mother in childhood. This was Repin's first wife - Vera Alekseevna and Elizaveta Grigorievna - the wife of Savva Mamontov. It was they who surrounded him with warmth and care, personifying the guardians of the family hearth.

But the most striking thing is that Serov, always trying to become different from his mother, as a result turned into her likeness: he had a too tough character, many were uncomfortable with him … Many, but not his Olya Trubnikova, whom the artist met in home of relatives and, to which he carried the most tender and reverent feelings throughout his life. This is evidenced by his numerous letters, with which he literally covered his beloved during separation, when they were young and, years later, when Olga became the mother of his children.

It should also be noted that fame came to Serov early enough. By the end of his life, he will become the most eminent and very expensive portrait painter in Russia.

She

- wrote about her in her memoirs the best friend of her youth Maria Yakovlevna Lvova, nee Simonovich.

The adopted daughter of the Simonovich couple, Olga Trubnikova, was brought up with their children from the age of 10. She was the thirteenth child of her parents, once very wealthy landowners in the Tambov province. The girl's father died, having spent all the property, followed by his mother died of tuberculosis. Olya was left an orphan, and they were going to place her in an orphanage. For lack of space, Simonovich temporarily sheltered Olenka in his house. He and his wife already had five children of their own. And when finally a place in the shelter was vacated, no one wanted to let the girl go, they were so used to her.

Fateful meeting

Valentin Serov, having arrived in St. Petersburg in 1880 to enter the Academy of Arts. After settling with his aunt Adelaide Semyonovna Simonovich, he immediately found himself surrounded by charming cousins and pupils Olya Trubnikova. The future artist enthusiastically painted portraits of all his cousins, but Olga somehow did not work out. Although a short stature, a quiet, neat young lady with a pale face bewitched him at first sight.

From that very first moment, as soon as their gazes met, from the very first phrases they said, a spark suddenly slipped through, igniting fiery feelings. Both felt that they could not live without each other, and this - forever. A little time will pass and he will write to her such touching letters, filled with tenderness and love, and he will write a lot of Olenka's portraits.

After becoming a student at the Academy, Serov moved to a rented apartment, but he still often visited the Simonovichs. Soon he brought friends there - Vladimir von Derviz, Mikhail Vrubel. Von Derviz fell in love with Serov's cousin Nadezhda, and Vrubel hit on Lelya Trubnikova. However, Olga did not even look towards Vrubel. And he did not suffer for a long time and struck at his cousin Valentin Masha, and … Derviz brought his younger brother to the house of the Maksimovichs, who liked his cousin Adelaide.

Soon, two weddings took place: the von Dervises married the Simonovich sisters. The von Dervies family was wealthy, there were no problems with funds, and therefore the brothers could afford whatever they wanted. And Serov was "naked as a falcon", there was not a penny in his pocket, and he and Lelya had to wait for their wedding for 9 years. And they passed this test: Olenka, who grew up near someone else's family hearth, dreamed of her own, while Valentine had this craving even more.

Almost nine years later, this day has come, thanks to the patron and collector Pavel Tretyakov, who bought the painting "Girl in the Sunshine" from Valentin Alexandrovich. And he, finally, was able to play a very modest wedding with the money raised. On a winter day in 1889, the young were married in St. Petersburg, Ilya Repin himself and Mikhail Vrubel were witnesses at their wedding.

More about the picture: The story of one portrait by Serov: how the fate of the "girl illuminated by the sun"

A life of parting together

The entire married life of the Serovs passed in continuous parting, the artist had to travel a lot around the country, fulfilling orders for portraits. Some of them had to stand in line for years. The artist was also in great demand at the imperial court of Nicholas II. However, after one incident, he left there loudly slamming the door, while saying: "I no longer work in this house! …"

More about this story: The rebellious spirit of Valentin Serov: An artist who dared to offer the Empress to correct the portrait of Nicholas II.

When Serov, at the age of 46, suddenly died of an attack of angina pectoris, Olga Fedorovna grieved over the loss. And against the background of all the experiences and sufferings, the woman fell ill with a severe form of Graves' disease. She then miraculously managed to get out of the clutches of death, and she lived for another 16 years. And all these years, a fragile woman devoted to the work of her husband, his children and grandchildren.

Continuing the theme of the marriages of artists, happy and not very happy, read: Why the personal life of a bohemian artist who was a favorite of women did not work out: Konstantin Korovin.