FIGURATIVE PAINTERS
Valentin Serov : drawings and paintings
Valentin Serov : drawings and paintings
 
 
  
 
  
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The artist Valentin Serov was born in to the family of a famous Russian composer Alexander Serov. In 1871 his father died, and in 1872-73 he with his widowed mother, lived in Munich, where he had lessons from the artist K. Kepping. In 1874, they moved to Paris, where Valentin regularly visited the studio of Ilya Repin, who was very fond of the little boy. Valentin grew up in an atmosphere of constant creativity, which characterized the Mamontovs’ household. He was lucky in getting a professional education from early childhood from the best Russian artists. At the age of 15 Serov entered Academy of Arts in the class of professor Pavel Tchistykov. There he met his lifelong friend Vladimir Derviz. His first exhibited works Girl with Peaches. Portrait of Vera Mamontova.(1887) and Girl in the Sunlight. Portrait of Maria Simonovich. (1888) were a sensation. Critics called them a new word in painting. At the time of painting them Serov was unfamiliar with the works of the French Impressionists, yet he came very close to Renoir in these luminous, sunny, splendidly composed portraits.
Serov tried himself in different genres: he was a beautiful landscape painter in a more sensuous and less nostalgic vein than another teacher of his, Isaac Levitan.
Serov became the most successful and brilliant portraitist in Russia of the 1890s and first decade of the 20th century.In 1897-1909, Serov taught in Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He was a superb technical master of the many media in which he practiced and that too did not fail to impress his students.In 1903, he was elected the academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. Serov died in 1911.
