''Portrait of Catherine Balebina'' is a 1956 painting by Russian portrait artist

Lev Russov Lev Alexandrovich Russov (russian: Ле́в Алекса́ндрович Ру́сов; 31 January 1926 – 20 February 1987) was a Soviet Russian painter, graphic artist, and sculptor, living and working in Leningrad, a member of the Leningrad b ...

(1926–1987), which depicts his wife Catherine Balebina (russian: Екатери′на Васи′льевна Бале′бина; 1933–2002).

History

The

portrait A portrait is a painting, 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, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

was painted in

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 ...

(now Saint Petersburg) in 1956 and is one of the most famous portraits by the artist. Catherine Balebina was born December 29, 1933, the daughter of Vasily Balebin, a famed military pilot and torpedo-bomber,

Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union (russian: Герой Советского Союза, translit=Geroy Sovietskogo Soyuza) was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded together with the Order of Lenin personally or collectively for ...

and

Great Patriotic War The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of conflict between the European Axis powers against the Soviet Union (USSR), Poland and other Allies, which encompassed Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northeast Europe (Baltics), and Sou ...

. Russov met Catherine Balebina in 1955 and they were married on 31 January 1959. His son Andrew Russov was born April 27, 1960, and was his primary

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

. Charming and lively, he posed for his father for many paintings and portraits. In this portrait of his wife, Russov puts on a pedestal a gamine image of feminine beauty and charm. It seems Rusov meant only to canonize and sing of this perfection, and he does it according to the laws of the

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

. The painting's neutral background makes Catherine the focal point of the piece. Catherine's closed, dark blue dress focuses attention on her face, shaded by her chestnut hair, and her expressive eyes. Her gaze directed to the side, she hides a smile at the corner of her sensuous lips. In contrast to the stillness of her pose, her eyes speak of a passionate and independent nature, also seem in her expression. No details of the portrait belong to a specific time or place. Yet we do not hesitate to recognize the young woman as a contemporary of the middle - second half of the 1950s. Until the early 1990s, ''Portrait of Catherine Balebina'' was kept in the artist's family. Subsequently, it was acquired as part of a private collection. In 2007 ''Portrait of Catherine Balebina'' has been described and reproduced in the book ''Unknown Socialist Realism: The Leningrad School'', among 350 selected works by artists of the Leningrad School.''Sergei V. Ivanov. Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School.'' Saint Petersburg, NP-Print Edition, 2007. P.65.

References

Sources

* ''Directory of Members of the Union of Artists of USSR. Volume 2.''Moscow, Soviet artist, 1979. P.290. * ''Directory of members of the Leningrad branch of Union of Artists of Russian Federation.'' Leningrad, Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1980. P.103. * ''Иванов С. О ранних портретах Льва Русова'' // Петербургские искусствоведческие тетради. Выпуск 23. СПб., 2012. С.7-15.

External links

''«Portrait of Catherine Balebina» on VIDEO "Artist Lev Alexandrovich Russov. Masterpieces of Painting of 1950-1970s"''

''Portrait of Catherine Balebina (1956). Lev Russov Solo Exhibition in The Museum of Art''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Catherine Balebina 1956 paintings 20th-century portraits Paintings by Lev Russov Portraits of women Portraits by Russian artists

History

See also

References

Sources

External links