12 portraits of Anna Akhmatova - 12 attempts to capture the elusive: from carelessness to doom

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

It's hard to say how much there is portraits of Anna Akhmatova, - it was written by famous artists of the early twentieth century: A. Modigliani, Z. Serebryakova, N. Altman, Y. Annenkov, K. Petrov-Vodkin and many others, and on all canvases it is completely different. Embossed profile, crooked nose, straight bangs, royal posture - its features are familiar to every schoolchild. But there is something elusive, changeable that always seems to elude artists. And the mystery of Anna Akhmatova remains unsolved.

In 1910, during her honeymoon with N. Gumilyov in Paris, Anna Akhmatova met a young, still unknown and poor artist Amedeo Modigliani. He offered to paint her portrait, and she agreed. Akhmatova never spoke about what feelings arose between them then, but the artist painted several portraits of her and continued to write letters to her after her departure.

Gumilyov was jealous of his wife and called Modigliani "an eternally drunk monster." But a year later they quarreled, and Akhmatova again went to Paris to Modigliani. They spent three months together. Unfortunately, most of his works have not survived - either burned down during a fire, or were carefully hidden by the poetess herself. It was 16 pencil drawings, one of which she always carried with her.

In 1914, one of the most famous portraits of Akhmatova by N. Altman was created. He saw her regal, majestic, self-confident, but at the same time fragile, defenseless and feminine. The artist tried to convey its very essence, the image he created is so attractive that many call this work the best portrait of the poetess.

In the autumn of the same year, the artist Olga Kardovskaya wrote in her diary: “Today Akhmatova posed for me. She is peculiarly beautiful, very tall, slender, the charm of the model reigns over me, I am terribly distracted, I want to work and live this work. The image she created is somewhat idealized and softened.

In 1921, the image in the portraits changed significantly, there was more and more tragedy, sorrow and doom in it. About Yuri Annenkov's pen drawing, E. Zamyatin wrote: “A portrait of Akhmatova - or, more precisely: a portrait of Akhmatova's eyebrows. From them - like clouds - light, heavy shadows across the face, and there are so many losses in them. They are like a key in a piece of music: this key is put on - and you hear what the eyes say, the mourning of the hair, the black rosary on the comb. " Annenkov said that he saw her "a sad beauty, who seemed to be a modest hermit, dressed in a fashionable dress of a secular lady." This portrait in 2013 was sold at the auction house Sotheby’s for $ 1.380 million.

In 1922, two new portraits appeared, creating radically opposite images. Akhmatova Zinaida Serebryakova is touching, gentle, unusually feminine. Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin saw her absolutely different, his portrait depicts a restrained and strict stoic, courageously enduring trials, a poet, absorbed in what is happening inside. His Akhmatova is devoid of attractiveness and feminine charm, in her face there are more masculine features.

In 1927-1928. a series of graphic portraits of Akhmatova was painted by the artist N. Tyrsa. These portraits are laconic but very expressive. They are made in an unusual manner - soot from a kerosene lamp in combination with watercolors. The artist created a subtle, austere, poetic, soulful and mournful image of the poet.

In the 1964 portrait of the artist Langleben, there is a woman, exhausted by illness and hardship, but not broken, who survived the death of her husband, the arrest and imprisonment of her son, literary persecution and oblivion. Later, her talent is recognized all over the world, but recognition came to Modigliani only after her death. Scandalous "Nudes" by Amedeo Modigliani: why the police closed the exhibition of paintings