Zinaida Serebriakova

An outstanding Ukrainian artist, a painter and graphic artist who worked in Russia and France, a member of “The World of Art”, one of the first women who simultaneously entered the history of painting of Ukraine, Russia and France. Known for the portraits of outstanding people of her time, paintings on rural themes and monumental paintings.

Zinaida was born into a family of prominent masters. Nikolai Benois, the grandfather of her mother, was a famous architect, her father Eugene Lansere, who died early, was a famous sculptor, her uncle, A. Benois, was an outstanding contemporary artist. After the death of the head of the family in 1886, the mother and six of her children moved to St. Petersburg, but they spent each summer at Neskuchnoye and Veseloye estates. The family visited the Hermitage and theaters, did not miss a single exhibition. All relatives were engaged in creative work and encouraged the studies of Zina, who had been painting since childhood. The choice of the portrait genre was prompted by communication with numerous relatives – bright masters (uncle A. Benois, brothers Lansere, etc.) and guests, such as K. Somov, A. Akhmatova, J. Annenkov. Later, in Paris, she painted S. Prokofiev, artist S. Ivanov, and others.

Due to the tragically developing life (and political) circumstances, and also because of her very modestly shy and unpractical nature, Z. E. Serebryakova received deserved recognition only in the 1960s, when a number of exhibitions successfully took place in several cities of Russia. In France, the artist was rarely exhibited, but her magnificent portraits were popular. In the homeland of the artist in the village of Neskuchnoye near Kharkov, there are “Neskuchnoye plein-airs” of her name, and there is The Serebryakova’s Foundation created by her children Alexander and Catherine in France. Critics and connoisseurs characterized Serebryakova as an outstanding master of “European significance”, but the voice of the artist, whose art was almost realistic, drowned in the noise around abstract arts and other new delights. In art history, however, there are terms “serebryakova’s painting” and ” serebryakova’s portrait”. The canvases of the artist adorn the collections of the best museums of Europe, Ukraine and Russia.

Key Ideas:

– Since the time of her apprenticeship, Z. Lansere tried to express her admiration for the beauty of the world in her works. Her early paintings, performed in a style close to Post-Impressionism (“Garden in Blossom”, 1908, etc.) tell of the search for harmony and the acute emotions from the charm of their native land. Even having joined the society of avant-garde artists “The World of Art”, the artist was distinguished by her style, which is characterized by plasticity, and love for stories, simple and clear to everyone.

– If in St. Petersburg Zinaida was formed as a person, then her talent blossomed in her beloved Neskuchnoye – every scrap of this ground excited the artist. The perfection of the technique in combination with freshness of color and purity of irreproachably chosen tones attracts the viewer in the landscapes of the artist. She includes the figures of people or simple buildings, in the composition as an element of the organization of space.

– Portraits by Z. Serebryakova are alive, full of light and optimism – this attitude to nature was preserved by the artist even later, when she painted Moroccan women and Moroccans. The same vivid emotion is conveyed by a large cycle depicting peasant women – working, sleeping, and taking bath.

– Very resonant, breathing clear freshness palette of the artist is close in its style to Fauvism and Expressionism, and to some extent to Realism, because she did not refuse to please the newest trends from an almost correct perspective. At the same time, she used large planes in a local bright color, which gave the canvases a decorative sound. The classics of the art of the early 20th century included such paintings as “At the Dressing-Table” (a self-portrait of the artist) and “Green in Autumn” (both were purchased by The Tretyakov Gallery at the first Zinaida’s exhibition), as well as famous “Harvest”, surprising not only with its rich color, but also by the clarity of characters. In the same period of the heyday of her career and personal well-being, painting ” The whitening of the canvas” was created. For its composition, the master chose an underlined low horizon line, due to which, against the sky, the silhouettes of peasant women acquired monumentality.

– Z. Serebryakova created many portraits of dancers (Benois flat was “condensed” by the theater artists). Among the friendly-clear-eyed beauties typical for the artist, there are such paintings as “Blue dancers” in the series – anxious strokes of the brush, chaotic-restless lines and some sketchiness of the work express the worries of the master for her fate and the fate of her children.