Valentin Aleksandrovich SEROV 1865 — 1911Валентин Олександрович СЄРОВ • Валентин Александрович СЕРОВValentin Aleksandrovich Serov was born in 1865 in St. Petersburg, Russia. The son of a composer, Valentin Serov was immersed in the creative atmosphere of the Abramtsevo Circle from childhood. He lived at the estate of industrialist Savva Mamontov for long periods of time and from the age of 10 began to study graphic art and painting under Ilya Repin (in Paris and Moscow). Serov studied at the Academy of Arts during 1880–1885 under Pavel Tchistyakov. From 1894 to 1899, he was a member of “The Wanderers”, and from 1899, a member of the “World of Art” association. The greatest works of Serov’s early period were portraits "The Girl with peaches" (1887), "The Girl covered by the sun" (1888); Portrait painting came first in his creative work, but the history of Russian landscape art is inconceivable without his landscapes. In some of his early works, Serov combines portrait and landscape genres. From 1890 on, the portrait became the basic genre in Serov’s art. Beginning in 1887, Serov taught at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, and in 1903 became a full member of the Academy. Among his students were Pavel Kuznetsov, N.N. Sapunov, Martiros Saryan, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, and Konstantin Yuon. The artist left the ranks of the Academy in protest of the shooting of a peaceful demonstration on 9 January 1905. Serov was a remarkable graphic artist, and in his later years did work for the theater. Died in Moscow in 1911. |
