The Russian Museum opened an exhibition of Akhmatova's lifetime portraits

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

On June 19, an exhibition was opened at the State Russian Museum, where visitors are presented with various portraits of the famous poetess Anna Akhmatova.

The peculiarity of this exhibition is that all the works of art presented at it were created by Akhmatova's contemporaries. The exhibition is being held in the Mikhailovsky Palace and its Garden Vestibule. Among the exhibits is the work of Nathan Altman, which is considered one of the most famous images of the poetess.

Lyubov Shakirova, senior researcher of the painting department of the Russian Museum of the second half of the 19th century - the beginning of the 21st century, spoke a little about the exhibition. She took part in the creation of this exhibition and communicated with representatives of the media. The Russian Museum owns a fairly large number of portraits of Anna Akhmatova, which made it possible to compose such an exhibition. All the works that have been selected for display to visitors are the creations of people who knew the famous poetess and communicated with her. The artists were fascinated by her, which can be seen in their works.

At the exhibition in the Russian Museum, visitors can get acquainted with different periods of her life through the portraits of the poetess. It is very exciting to see what changes occurred with age with this famous person, as well as to observe how the artists' view of this person changed during her lifetime. Shakirova said that they decided to open the exhibition from a portrait that was painted in 1913 by Altman.

This is one of the most famous portraits of the poetess. On it, she is captured in a blue dress, sitting in an armchair. In this work, the author decided to emphasize an expressive profile. It is worth paying attention to the fact that there is a description of Akhmatova herself, which tells about the process of writing this canvas.

While visiting this exhibition, you can see the works of Benjamin Belkin and Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin. Belkin painted a portrait of the poetess for the first time in 1924 and continued to do so for 15 years until 1941. There are also sculptures at the exhibition, of which there are only two and they show the images of Akhmatova that are radically different from each other. One of the sculptures is a porcelain figurine created by the Leningrad Porcelain Factory. The second is the bust of Ilya Slonim, depicting the poetess already in old age.