Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova (russian: Зинаида Евгеньевна Серебрякова; – 20 September 1967) was a Russian and later French painter.

Family

Serebriakova portrait-of-e-solntseva-sister-of-artist-1914

Zinaida Serebryakova was born on the estate of Neskuchnoye near Kharkov (now

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Benois family in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

. Her father, Evgenii Lansere, was a sculptor and her mother, Ekaterina Lansere, was a painter. Her grandfather,

Nicholas Benois Nicholas Benois (russian: link=no, Никола́й Лео́нтьевич Бенуа́; 13 July 1813 – 23 December 1898) was an Imperial Russian architect who worked in Peterhof and other suburbs of St Petersburg. Biography Benois was born i ...

, was a prominent architect, chairman of the Society of Architects and member of the

Russian Academy of Science The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

. Her uncle,

Alexandre Benois Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Бенуа́, also spelled Alexander Benois; ,Salmina-Haskell, Larissa. ''Russian Paintings and Drawings in the Ashmolean Museum''. pp. 15, 23-24. Published by ...

, was a painter, founder of the ''

Mir iskusstva ''Mir iskusstva'' ( rus, «Мир искусства», p=ˈmʲir ɪˈskustvə, ''World of Art'') was a Russian magazine and the artistic movement it inspired and embodied, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize Eur ...

'' art group. One of Zinaida's brothers,

Nikolay Lanceray Nikolay Evgenievich Lanceray (russian: Николай Евгеньевич Лансере; 26 April 1879 – 6 May 1942) was a Russian architect, preservationist, illustrator of books and historian of neoclassical art, biographer of Charles Came ...

, was an architect, and her other brother, Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Lanceray, had an important place in Russian and Soviet art as a master of monumental painting and

graphic art A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface.

. The English actor and writer

Peter Ustinov Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov (born Peter Alexander Freiherr von Ustinov ; 16 April 192128 March 2004) was a British actor, filmmaker and writer. An internationally known raconteur, he was a fixture on television talk shows and lecture circuits ...

was also related to her.

Youth

In 1900, she graduated from a women's gymnasium (equivalent to grammar school or high school), and entered the art school founded by

Princess Maria Tenisheva Maria Klavdievna Tenisheva (née Pyatkovskaya, in the first marriage - Nikolaeva, (20 May 1858 – 14 April 1928) was a Russian Princess, artist, educator, philanthropist and collector. She was born May 20, 1858, in St. Petersburg. Maria Tenisheva ...

. She studied with

Ilya Repin Ilya Yefimovich Repin (russian: Илья Ефимович Репин, translit=Il'ya Yefimovich Repin, p=ˈrʲepʲɪn); fi, Ilja Jefimovitš Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is now Ukraine. He became one of the ...

in 1901 and

portrait A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...

artist

Osip Braz Osip Emmanuilovich Braz (russian: Осип Эммануилович Браз; 16 January 1873 in Odessa – 6 November 1936 near Paris) was a Russian-Jewish realist painter. Biography He began his art education in Odessa, now Ukraine, and conti ...

between 1903 and 1905. From 1902 to 1903, she spent time in Italy, and from 1905 to 1906 she studied at the

Académie de la Grande Chaumière The Académie de la Grande Chaumière is an art school in the Montparnasse district of Paris, France. History The school was founded in 1904 by the Catalan painter Claudio Castelucho on the rue de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, near the Acadé ...

in Paris. In 1905, she married her first cousin, Boris Serebryakov, the son of Evgenyi's sister, and took his surname. Boris went on to become a railroad engineer.

Early success

Zinaida Serebryakova - self-portrait as Piero (1911)

Serebryakova's most famous self-portrait,

At the Dressing-Table ''At the Dressing-Table. Self-Portrait'' (russian: За туалетом. Автопортрет) is a 1909 painting by Ukranian-French painter Zinaida Serebriakova. The painting is in the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Its size is ...

(1909,

Tretyakov Gallery The State Tretyakov Gallery (russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, ''Gosudarstvennaya Tretyâkovskaya Galereya''; abbreviated ГТГ, ''GTG'') is an art gallery in Moscow, Russia, which is considered th ...

), was painted while she was snowed in at her family home and models from a nearby village were unable to travel there. Her brother Evgenii encouraged Serebryakova to enter the painting in an exhibition mounted by the

Union of Russian Artists ''Mir iskusstva'' ( rus, «Мир искусства», p=ˈmʲir ɪˈskustvə, ''World of Art'') was a Russian magazine and the artistic movement it inspired and embodied, which was a major influence on the Russians who helped revolutionize Eur ...

in 1910, where it was received with enthusiasm and purchased for the

collection. The self-portrait was followed by ''Girl Bathing'' (1911, Russian Museum), a portrait of ''Ye.K. Lanceray'' (1911, private collection), and a portrait of the artist's mother ''Yekaterina Lanceray'' (1912, Russian Museum). Serebryakova joined the ''

'' movement in 1911. From 1914 to 1917, Serebriakova produced a series of pictures on the theme of Russian rural life including ''Peasants'' (1914–1915, Russian Museum), ''Sleeping Peasant Girl'' (private collection). When, in 1916, Alexander Benois was commissioned to decorate the Kazan Railway Station in Moscow, he invited Yevgeny Lanceray,

Boris Kustodiev Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev (russian: Бори́с Миха́йлович Кусто́диев; – 28 May 1927) was a Russian and Soviet painter and stage designer. Early life Boris Kustodiev was born in Astrakhan into the family of a profe ...

Mstislav Dobuzhinsky Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky ( lt, Mstislavas Dobužinskis, August 14, 1875, Novgorod – November 20, 1957, New York City) was a Russian and Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay ...

, and Serebryakova to help him. Serebryakova took on the theme of the

Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, Japan,

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, and

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...

are represented allegorically in the form of beautiful women. At the same time, she began compositions on subjects from classical mythology, but these remained

unfinished Unfinished may refer to: *Unfinished creative work, a work which a creator either chose not to finish or was prevented from finishing. Music * Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) "Unfinished" * ''Unfinished'' (album), 2011 album by American singer Jor ...

Revolution

After the outbreak of the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

in 1917, Serebriakova's life changed. In 1919, her husband Boris died of

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposure. ...

. She was left without any income, responsible for her four children and her sick mother. All the reserves of Neskuchnoye had been plundered, so the family suffered from hunger. She had to give up oil painting in favour of the less expensive techniques of charcoal and pencil. This was the time of her most tragic painting,

House of Cards A house of cards (also known as a card tower or card castle) is a structure created by stacking playing cards on top of each other, often in the shape of a pyramid. "House of cards" is also an expression that dates back to 1645 meaning a structu ...

, which depicts their four fatherless children. She did not want to switch to the

Suprematist Suprematism (russian: Супремати́зм) is an early twentieth-century art movement focused on the fundamentals of geometry (circles, squares, rectangles), painted in a limited range of colors. The term ''suprematism'' refers to an abstra ...

or Contructivist styles popular in the art of the early Soviet period, nor paint portraits of

commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and Eas ...

s, but she found some work at the Kharkov Archaeological Museum, where she made pencil drawings of the exhibits. In December 1920, she moved to her grandfather’s apartment in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. After the

, inhabitants of private apartments were forced to share them with additional inhabitants, but Serebriakova was lucky – she was quartered with artists from the

Moscow Art Theatre The Moscow Art Theatre (or MAT; russian: Московский Художественный академический театр (МХАТ), ''Moskovskiy Hudojestvenny Akademicheskiy Teatr'' (МHАТ)) was a theatre company in Moscow. It was f ...

. Thus, Serebriakova's work during this period focuses on theatre life. Also around this time, Serebriakova's daughter, Tatiana, entered the academy of ballet, and Serebriakova created a series of pastels on the

Mariinsky Theater The Mariinsky Theatre ( rus, Мариинский театр, Mariinskiy teatr, also transcribed as Maryinsky or Mariyinsky) is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music th ...

Paris

Zinaida Serebryakova (1914) At Breakfast

In the autumn of 1924, Serebriakova went to Paris, having received a commission for a large decorative mural. On finishing this work, she intended to return to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, where her mother and the four children remained. However, she was not able to return, and although she was able to bring her children, Alexandre and Catherine, to Paris in 1926 and 1928 respectively, she could not do the same for her two other children, Evgenyi and Tatiana, and did not see them again for many years. After this, Serebriakova traveled a great deal. In 1928 and 1930, she traveled to Africa, visiting

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

. During a six-week trip to Morocco in December 1928, she created more than 130 portraits and cityscapes which she called “sketches,” drawn in haste as none of the locals would agree to pose, and only three landscapes for fear of straying too far from Marrakech. She was fascinated by the landscapes of northern Africa and painted the

Atlas mountains The Atlas Mountains are a mountain range in the Maghreb in North Africa. It separates the Sahara Desert from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean; the name "Atlantic" is derived from the mountain range. It stretches around through Moroc ...

, as well as

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

women and Africans in ethnic clothing. She also painted a cycle devoted to

Breton Breton most often refers to: *anything associated with Brittany, and generally ** Breton people ** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany ** Breton (horse), a breed **Ga ...

fishermen. The salient feature of her later landscapes and portraits is the artist's own personality — her love of beauty, whether in nature or in people. In 1947, Serebriakova at last took French citizenship, and it was not until Khruschev's Thaw that the Soviet Government allowed her to resume contact with her family in the Soviet Union. In 1960, after 36 years of forced separation, her older daughter, Tatiana (Tata), was finally allowed to visit her. At this time, Tatiana was also working as an artist, painting scenery for the

. Serebriakova's works were finally exhibited in the Soviet Union in 1966, in Moscow,

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, and

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, to great acclaim. Her albums sold by the millions, and she was compared to

Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered ...

and

Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...

. Serebriakova rejoiced at success in her homeland. However, although she sent about 200 of her works to be shown in the Soviet Union, the bulk of her work remains in France today. Serebriakova died after a brain hemorrhage in Paris on 19 September 1967, at the age of 82. She is buried in Paris, at the Russian cemetery at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.

Tribute

On 10 December 2020,

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

celebrated her 136th birthday with a

Google Doodle A Google Doodle is a special, temporary alteration of the logo on Google's homepages intended to commemorate holidays, events, achievements, and notable historical figures. The first Google Doodle honored the 1998 edition of the long-running an ...

Selected artwork

File:Serebriaikova veranda-spring.jpg, ''The Veranda in Spring'', watercolor, 1900 File:Zinaida Serebriakova The Shoots of Autumn Crops.jpg, '' The Shoots of Autumn Crops'' (Зеленя осенью), 1908 File:1910. Портрет Ольги Константиновны Лансере.jpg, ''Portrait of Olga Lanceray'', 1910 File:Serebriakova apples-on-the-branches-1910.jpg, ''Apples on the Branches'', 1910 File:1911. Купальщица.jpg, ''Nude'' (Купальщица), 1911 File:Serebryakova Bath house 1913.jpg, ''Bath-house'', 1913

Notes

References

*
author's home page
*
Cover image and description. Larger cover image showing her signature in Latin script.
bibrec
orbis has two errors: last name, ISBN --> :Illustrated monograph on the creative development and life of Zinaida Serebriakova by St. Petersburg art critic A. A. Rusakova. * :''Zinaida Serebriakova: Letters, contemporary views'' (literally: ''Zinaida Serebriakova: Letters, contemporaries on the artist'')

External links

Serebriakova's biography on the St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Fine Arts, Sculpture, and Architecture

br>(Three show her signature in 1930s Paris. Two sold for over $500,000.)

(The following portraits from the above site show her signature in Cyrillic script.)

Zinaida Serebriakova's 136th birthday
on

{{DEFAULTSORT:Serebriakova, Zinaida 1884 births 1967 deaths Burials at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery 20th-century Russian painters Russian symbolism Painters from Saint Petersburg Russian Impressionist painters Benois family Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière Orientalist painters 20th-century Russian women artists Soviet emigrants to France