The rebellious spirit of Valentin Serov: An artist who dared to invite the empress to correct the portrait of Nicholas II

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

Unrivaled portraits Valentina Serova (1865-1911)- as a mirror reflecting the true personality of the hero of the canvas, in which you can see the past, learn about the present and even look into the future. Serov never considered himself a court painter, nevertheless he created several worthy portraits of members of the royal family. But once, when he was asked to create another portrait of the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, Serov replied:. And there was a reason for such a harsh response.

To become a model for Serov's portraits was a big risk, since he was very demanding both of himself and of the model. He was considered a merciless artist: he worked slowly and never flattered the heroes of his creations, he simply exhausted the portrayed by the length of the sessions. And if he did not like the model, he could turn the portrait into a veiled caricature, while the customer might not even have guessed about it. And the master could simply refuse, not finding anything interesting in the person of the customer. But be that as it may, the "Serov brush" was longed for by many, and in spite of everything, noble aristocrats lined up for him.

Childhood and becoming an artist

In 1865, a son was born into the family of the composer and music critic Alexander and Valentina Serov, who became an outstanding artist. Having lost his father early, the boy was brought up in a commune and in a foreign boarding house. Serov's mother was the first female composer in Russia and studied in Munich, so she could not pay enough attention to her son. She devoted all her time to music.

While still living in the commune, the boy showed a craving for drawing. But soon it was closed, and Valentina was sent to her mother abroad. At the age of nine, he began to study painting with a very young Ilya Repin, who lived in Paris.

While studying in the gymnasium, young Serov was still under the supervision of Repin. And in their free time, the young artist and the young student drew models together, went to sketches, sketched antique statues. In the 80th year, they visited the Crimea, and drove through the places of the former Zaporizhzhya Sich on the Dnieper, visited Odessa and Kiev. This trip left an indelible impression on the mind of an aspiring artist.

Upon his return, thanks to Repin's request, 15-year-old Serov becomes an auditor, and a year later a student of the Academy of Arts. Where was P. P. Chistyakov, who could not get enough of a talented student. And in 1886 Serov made the final decision to leave the Academy.

Portraits of members of the royal family

In order not to feel dependent and to have freedom in artistic expression, Valentin Serov appointed very little money for his works. Therefore, he had to work very hard. And although Serov in the manner of his painting did not at all resemble a court artist, in 1893 he received an order to paint portraits of members of the royal family.

Mikhail Alexandrovich Romanov (1878-1918) - Grand Duke, youngest son of Emperor Alexander III, brother of Emperor Nicholas II. About the portrait of his son, the father said: "Mishenka is as alive."

Ksenia Alexandrovna Romanova (1875-1960) - Grand Duchess, the eldest daughter of Alexander III.

Olga Alexandrovna Romanova (1882-1960) - Grand Duchess, the youngest daughter of Tsar Alexander III.

Once, when Princess Yusupova began to praise this portrait of Alexander III, painted by Serov, saying that this is the best of the many portraits of the tsar, he answered, not without mischief, that the others were simply too bad.

The history of creation and the fate of the portrait of Nicholas II

In the spring of 1900, the artist began working on a portrait of Nicholas II, who had just ascended the throne, in the uniform of the chief of the Scottish dragoons. And when he graduated, Serov invited the tsar to paint his "home portrait" for the empress. Although Nicholas was tired of posing for the first portrait, he nevertheless agreed. After the completion of the painting, Alexander Fedorovna, the great empress expressed her opinion, pointing out the unfinished places in the portrait of her husband to the artist, which needed to be corrected. Serov, as if nothing had happened, handed her a palette with paints and said:. Offended, the empress left, but the king remained silent.

And when, at the beginning of 1902, the artist was offered to create another portrait of the Russian emperor, Serov refused: All the emperor's attempts to regain the favor of the rebellious artist were in vain.

About that notorious portrait of the tsar, contemporaries used to say that Serov was the first to see the weakness in the monarch. The master portrayed the sovereign as a simple man who, having thought, already foresaw all the coming changes in Russia.

It is difficult to argue about what the emperor really was, because the manipulation of facts from the autocrat's biography was beneficial to many. Some spoke of him as a gentle and kind person, others called him Nikolai the Bloody. The First World War and two revolutions fell on his reign, and it was unlikely that in this situation it was possible to remain soft and kind.

But one thing is certain - he was not a vengeful man. For neither the humiliation of the empress, nor the refusal to work at court, nor the cartoons after the execution of the 1905 demonstration in the satirical magazine "Bogey", did not entail any reprisals against Serov. Nikolai continued to appreciate Serov as a painter.

And it was quite possible to repress him for his political views and rebellious spirit. In 1909, as a sign of solidarity with the artist A. Golubkina, accused of unreliability by the tsarist authorities, Valentin Serov left the teaching position of the school of painting, sculpture and architecture and refused the honorary title of the real member of the Academy of Arts.

What is an interesting fact is that he was considered "their own" by all the warring representatives of different trends in Russian painting at the beginning of the 20th century. And Petrov-Vodkin, Kuznetsov and Saryan considered Serov their main mentor.

The further fate of the portrait of Nicholas II was as follows: in October 1917, after the revolutionaries took the Winter Palace, the disciples-artists, seeing how the soldiers were dragging the portrait of the emperor from the palace, begged to give the picture to them. Young artists brought the portrait to the artist Neradovsky, who preserved and recreated it. Since the canvas was pierced by the bayonets of the revolutionaries. Be that as it may, this creation of the great master, thanks to a happy accident, has survived to this day.

Modern connoisseurs of painting, as well as art critics, unanimously affirm that this portrait is the best depiction of the last emperor of Russia.

People who did not know Serov saw him as a thoughtful and gloomy person. And friends celebrated

And in Serov, he was captivated by his chastity: he was not eager for young ladies, he could not stand vulgar jokes and talked about himself, with his inherent modesty and sense of humor:.

In the video, you can see many portraits belonging to Serov, an outstanding Russian artist:

Serov died in November 1911 in Moscow at the age of 46 from an attack of angina pectoris. The burial from the Donskoy cemetery was moved to Novodevichye in Moscow.

- wrote the artist Igor Grabar.

Serov knew how to look into everyone's soul and tell the truth through the image he created. And not without reason some contemporaries were afraid to order portraits and pose for him.