This picture is known even to people far from art. It's about about the famous "Girl with Peaches" by Valentin Serov. Those who are interested in the work of this artist also know that 11-year-old Vera Mamontova, the daughter of a well-known philanthropist and wealthy industrialist, posed for him.
But few people know what happened to the heroine when she grew up, and what tragic fate waiting for her family. Faktrum publishes the story of the same Girl.
Source: Kulturologia.ru
1. Valentin Serov created his most famous work at a young age - at that time he was only 22 years old. In the spring of 1887, he returned from Italy and stayed for a stay at the Abramtsevo estate of Savva Mamontov near Moscow. The artist worked with inspiration and as if in one breath, but at the same time the girl had to pose for a long time.
Serov later wrote about that period:
“All I wanted was freshness, that special freshness that you always feel in nature and you don’t see in pictures. I wrote for more than a month and tortured her, poor thing, to death.
2. The estate in Abramtsevo was a real home of creativity: Turgenev, Antokolsky, Surikov, Korovin were guests here. Vera Mamontova was painted by many artists who visited Abramtsevo: Repin, Vasnetsov, Vrubel also created her portraits. Vrubel endowed her with the features of "Snow Maiden", "Egyptian", Tamara in the illustrations for "Demon". Vasnetsov explained the desire of artists to paint her in this way: "It was the type of a real Russian girl in character, beauty of her face, charm." But the most famous was Serov's painting "Girl with Peaches".
3. The artist painted a portrait of Vera in the dining room, outside of which one could see Abramtsevo Park with an alley named Gogol in honor of the writer who once loved to walk here. In the next room - the Red Drawing Room - writers and artists often gathered.
4. Serov presented the painting to Elizaveta Mamontova, mother of Vera, and the portrait hung for a long time in the room in which it was painted. Later, the painting ended up in the Tretyakov Gallery, and a copy remained in Abramtsevo. After "The Girl with Peaches" they started talking about Serov, and soon he became one of the most fashionable portrait painters. But how did it turn out further fate Vera Mamontova herself?
5. Vera married Alexander Samarin, leader of the Moscow nobility, Minister for Church Affairs. The wedding took place in the church of Boris and Gleb, later destroyed by the Bolsheviks. Now in its place, near the exit from the Arbatskaya metro station, there is a chapel.
6. The marriage was very happy, Vera gave birth to three children, but at the age of 32 her life was suddenly cut short. In a few days, she burned out from severe pneumonia.
7. After her death, Alexander Samarin never married, and in memory of his wife he built the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity in Averkievo, near their estate. In Soviet times, the temple was devastated and used as a warehouse. Now it has been restored. Vera Mamontova's husband was exiled to the camp in the 1920s, and their daughter Liza went with him. And he died in 1932 in the Gulag.
Picture Val.A. Serov. Created in 1887, is in the Tretyakov Gallery. Dimensions 91 × 85 cm. The portrait depicts Vera Mamontova, the twelve-year-old daughter of a merchant* and well-known philanthropist S.I. Mamontov. Serov painted a picture in the Mamontov estate ... ... Linguistic Dictionary
I Serov Alexander Nikolaevich, Russian composer, music critic. Born in the family of an official. In 1835-1840 he studied at the School of Law, where he became close friends with VV Stasov. In 1840 1868 ... ... Big soviet encyclopedia
- (1865 1911), Russian painter. He studied in childhood with I. E. Repin (in Paris and Moscow) and in the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1880-85) with P. P. Chistyakov. He taught at MUZhVZ (1897 1909); among the students of P. V. Kuznetsov, N. N. Sapunov, M. S. Saryan, K. S. ... ... Art Encyclopedia
- (Mammoth circle), an informal association of Russian creative intelligentsia (artists, musicians, theatrical figures, scientists). Active in 1870-90s. in Abramtsevo - the estate of the entrepreneur and philanthropist S. I. Mamontov. V. A. Serov.… … Art Encyclopedia
- (1865 1911), painter and graphic artist. Son of A. N. Serov. Member of the Association of Traveling Art Exhibitions, "World of Art". Early works (“Girl with Peaches”, 1887; “Girl ... encyclopedic Dictionary
Valentin Serov Self-portrait Date of birth ... Wikipedia
Serov, Valentin Alexandrovich- V.A. Serov. Girl with peaches. 1887. Tretyakov Gallery. SEROV Valentin Alexandrovich (1865-1911), painter and graphic artist. Son A.N. Serov. Wanderer. Member of the World of Art. Vital freshness, richness of plein air color (see Plein air) ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Serov Val. Al-dr.- SEROV Val. Al et al. (1865 1911) painter, graphic artist. The son of the composer A. N. Serov. He studied in childhood with I. E. Repin, in St. Petersburg. Academy of Arts by P.P. Chistyakov (1880-85). Traveled extensively in Zap. Europe. In the work of S. successfully combined democratic. Start… … Russian humanitarian encyclopedic dictionary
1. SEROV Alexander Nikolaevich (1820-71), composer and music critic. Op. Judith (1862), Rogneda (1865), Enemy Force (1871; completed by his wife V. S. Serova and N. F. Solovyov). One of the founders of Russian musical criticism. Bright ... ... Russian history
Valentin Serov Self-portrait Date of birth: 1865 Date of death: 1911 Nationality: Russian ... Wikipedia
Books
- , T. V. Iovleva. The notepad is part of the "Eco Notebook" series - an eco-project by the Folio publishing house. The notebook is printed on white paper. The sheets are not lined, the edition is supplemented with a satin ribbon...
- Valentin Serov. Girl with peaches. Notebook, T. V. Iovleva. The notepad is part of the "Eco Notebook" series - an eco-project by the Folio publishing house. The edition of the notebook uses eco-friendly kraft paper - a product of secondary processing of raw materials. Sheets are not...
Valentin Serov was the main portrait painter of his time. Literally everyone with little capital and ambitions ordered portraits from Serov. The artist, as expected, did not want to limit himself to this. For the soul, he painted frankly impressionistic canvases, which, if shown to the then Russian audience, would almost certainly be called obscurantism. That is why "The Girl with Peaches" remained in the Abramtsevo estate of the Mamontovs, where it was written.
Plot
One summer day, Valentin Serov, who was visiting the Mamontovs in Abramtsevo, saw how 11-year-old Vera, excited by playing Cossack robbers, ran into the dining room, took a peach and sat down at the table. Amazed, the artist began to persuade the girl to pose for him. Vera hardly suspected that Serov would be writing it for more than a month and that she would have to sit still for several hours every day while summer was rushing past the window.
Serov was able to convey the mischievous character of Vera: he is read in a sly look, and in the fold of his lips, it seems, ready to laugh, and in disheveled hair, and in a blush. In the pose of a girl, in her clothes there is no straining of the posing. It seems that this captured moment, like a ray or a butterfly - once, and flew away.
Trees are green outside the window. This is Gogolevskaya Alley in Abramtsevsky Park, along which Nikolai Vasilyevich liked to walk. On the table are peaches grown in the Abramtsevo greenhouse. Savva Mamontov bought trees from the Artemovo and Zhilkino estates in 1871.
The figurine of a wooden soldier in the corner was bought at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The grenadier, originally unpainted, was painted by Serov. By the way, the figurine still occupies the same place in the Abramtsevo Museum. Like the plate on the wall. Savva Mamontov loved ceramics, he even opened a pottery workshop at the estate.
After completing the portrait, Serov presented it to the girl's mother, Elizaveta Mamontova. The picture took its place in the same room where it was painted. Eyewitnesses said that thanks to the canvas, the spacious bright room seemed to be lit up with an even brighter light. The artist Mikhail Nesterov wrote that if the painting had been presented in Paris, Serov would have become famous on the same day. But in Russia, the public was not yet ready for impressionism, and therefore it was better to leave the work in the Abramtsev dining room and not show it publicly - what else would be called insane.
Context
“I wrote for more than a month and tortured her, poor thing, to death,” Serov recalled, “I really wanted to preserve the freshness of the painting with complete completeness - that's like the old masters.” Shortly before starting work on The Girl with Peaches, the painter returned from a trip to Italy. He was amazed by the works of the Renaissance masters, impressed by the country itself, its strength, atmosphere. Arriving in Russia, the 22-year-old artist was determined to paint only gratifying things. And the very first picture became the embodiment of this desire.
Vera Mamontova was called the "Abramtsevo goddess". It was written not only by Serov, but also by Vasnetsov. It is also believed that Vrubel gave her features to Tamara in the illustrations for The Demon, The Snow Maiden and The Egyptian Woman. At the age of 27, she married the Moscow provincial leader of the nobility Alexander Samarin, they had three children. At 32, Vera Savvishna fell ill with pneumonia and died. In the 1920s, Samarin was exiled to the camp, his daughter Liza went with him. In 1932 he died in the Gulag.
The fate of the artist
Serov grew up in a house where creative chaos reigned. Mother Valentina Semyonovna was a convinced nihilist. Father Alexander Nikolaevich was a popular composer at that time. By the way, the age difference between the spouses was 26 years: 43-year-old Alexander Nikolayevich married his 17-year-old student.
Nihilists and revolutionaries came to mother, writers, sculptors, musicians, artists came to father. Already after the death of his father, when the boy was in his seventh year, his mother gave him to Repin as a student. The boy spent so much time with the teacher that he was practically considered a member of the family.
Valentin also knew Mamontovs from early childhood. He spent a lot of time at their house. As the older children of the Mamontovs recalled, all their games and pranks were certainly connected with Anton - that was what they called him, because Serov did not like the name Valentin. Even little Vera made fun of him. Savva Mamontov subsequently found the first customers for the young artist. They were mostly bourgeois and aristocrats. Over time, Serov gained a reputation as a portrait painter with a “sharp” brush: he portrayed his respectable models in a not very favorable light, which, although they did not particularly like it, was accepted because it was a fashionable and almost mandatory measure of provocation.
And although the artist was ordered and paid for portraits, of all his works, he most of all appreciated the frankly impressionistic “Girl in the Sunlight”. Shortly before his death - at the end of 1911 - examining this canvas in the Tretyakov Gallery, he said: "I wrote this thing, and then all my life, no matter how puffed up, nothing came of it, then I was all exhausted."
She died very early - at thirty-two years old, and everyone who is at least a little familiar with Russian painting will forever remember her as a twelve-year-old. Such as it was written by Valentin Serov in "The Girl with Peaches". But, besides Serov, Viktor Vasnetsov, Nikolai Kuznetsov, Mikhail Vrubel wrote to Vera Mamontov.
She was the beloved and long-awaited daughter of the railway magnate, the most famous industrialist and entrepreneur Savva Ivanovich Mamontov and his wife Elizaveta Grigorievna. Before Vera, they had already had three sons and, according to family legend, after the third birth, when it became clear that there would be a boy again, Elizaveta Grigorievna promised her husband: “But the next girl will certainly be born!” And so it happened. After three boys, two more daughters appeared in the Mamontov family - Vera and Alexandra.
And it was no coincidence that she was named Vera.
The Mamontovs chose the names of their children with intent: their first letters were to sequentially make up the name SAVVA: Sergey - Andrey - Vsevolod - Vera - Alexandra.
Elizaveta Mamontova was truly, without hypocrisy and hypocrisy, religious. Valentin Serov wrote to his fiancee Olga Trubnikova: “Here, at the Mamontovs, they pray and fast a lot, that is, Elizaveta Grigoryevna and the children with her. I do not understand this, I do not condemn, I have no right to condemn religiosity and Elizabeth Gr<игорьевну>because I respect her too much - I just do not understand all these rituals. I always stand like such a fool in the church (in Russian, especially, I can’t stand deacons, etc.), I feel ashamed. I don’t know how to pray, and it’s impossible when there is absolutely no idea about God.”
But for Elizaveta Grigoryevna, what caused the rejection of her favorite Antosha Serov was full of deep meaning. The name "Faith" for her was associated with the most important Christian virtue: faith was an integral part of her spiritual life.
Savva Mamontov with daughters Vera (pictured right) and Alexandra.
Elizaveta Grigoryevna Mamontova with her daughter Vera.
Vera Mamontov. Abramtsevo. 1890s
An atmosphere of creativity, joy, mutual sympathy and love reigned in the Mamontovs' house on Sadovo-Spasskaya, known throughout enlightened Moscow, and especially in their Abramtsevo estate near Moscow. Artists, sculptors, writers, musicians gathered there. Home performances, hide-and-seek and tag, playing towns - ordinary and special, "literary", Cossack robbers, in which the artist Repin participates along with children, and his own children's boat "fleet" on the Vorya River, led by the artist Polenov, horseback riding , fascinating creative activities - woodcarving, watercolor, ceramics ... So Serov's complaints about Verushi posing for him are easily explained. “Tormented her, poor thing, to death” - the girl was eager to run away to do something more interesting. And yet, for almost a month and a half, Vera obediently sat at the table in the Abramtsevo living room. Such was the price of a masterpiece.
About ten years before this landmark moment for Russian art, the aged Ivan Turgenev visited Abramtsevo. He visited the estate long before the Mamontovs bought it. Turgenev, like Gogol, was a welcome guest of the former owner, the writer Sergei Timofeevich Aksakov. Now the author of "A Hunter's Notes" examined the estate renovated by the efforts of the Mammoths and recalled with nostalgia how they used to hunt here, go for mushrooms, and fish. Turgenev funny told that Aksakov meticulously recorded in his diary: in 1817, 1858 shots were fired on the hunt, 863 game units were killed, and in 1819 - so much ... Once on a fishing trip, Turgenev incredibly upset Aksakov, who was proud of his book “Notes on fishing”, by the fact that while the fisherman-theorist and the owner of the estate caught only a brush and a roach, Turgenev was lucky to extract a pike one and a half arshin. Behind these cheerful conversations, the living classic met the younger Mamontova.
In the fictional presentation of Vladislav Bahrevsky, it looks like this:
“We came to the red living room, sat down.
Flushed, blowing off a strand of hair that was creeping into her face, Verusha, red-cheeked and shining in her eyes, ran in.
- Oh, what an angel! - exclaimed Ivan Sergeevich and held out his hands, inviting the girl to him.
The fearless Verusha, without hesitation, threw herself into the arms of a giant with a white head, settled on her knees.
- She's three and a half? Turgenev asked.
- There will be three in October.
So I'm not quite old yet. If a person has not forgotten how to understand how old children are, he is fit for life.
- Verusha is very playful. She looks older than her years, - Elizaveta Grigoryevna agreed ... "
There is no doubt that the charming Vera Mamontova was a universal favorite from birth. This is also evidenced by the memoirs and letters of numerous family friends. Once Savva Ivanovich sent family photo close friend, sculptor Mark Antokolsky. Antokolsky's response letter - enthusiastically:
“Your photograph is so charming that you rejoice and laugh with you. May God bless you always and laugh. Abramtsevo goddess charm, charm! Kiss her, please, for me. In a word, I repeat about everything: “charm, charm!” And this is the absolute truth.”
"Abramtsevo goddess" and "charm", as you might guess, Mark Matveyevich calls Vera.
Vera Mamontova posing in an armchair for artist Nikolai Kuznetsov. A photo. 1880s
Vera Mamontova dressed as the biblical Joseph for a home performance. 1880s
Easter table in the Mammoth family. 1888 At the table - Vera with her older brothers.
Living picture "Russian dance". Vera with her cousin Ivan Mamontov. 1895 year.
Vera and Vsevolod Mamontov on horseback in Abramtsevo.
In memoirs about the Abramtsevo circle, one can often find the words "Yashkin's hut" or "Yashkin's house". Either Ilya Repin and his family will be settled in this “hut on chicken legs” by the owners of Abramtsev for the summer, or the Vasnetsov brothers. The eldest, Victor, admitted that nowhere had he worked so calmly and well as here, and the youngest, Apollinaris, even entered Yashkin's hut into his landscape.
What is this name? The Abramtsevo Chronicle helps to find out - a journal where they recorded all the most important things: what they worked on, what they played, what they were doing and who came to visit. At the beginning of May 1877, Savva Mamontov made a note by hand: “A separate dacha called“ Yashkin dom ”was built. This name was given because little Verushka called this house her own, and since her nickname was “Yashka”, then the house was called Yashkin.
Mamontov's biographer Bakhrevsky explains the origin of the nickname: "Little Verusha has had a lot of yakal since childhood." Well, perhaps so - for everyone's favorite in that there would be nothing out of the ordinary. But in the Mamontovs, as in many families, this was a common thing, all children were given affectionate nicknames: Andrei was called Dryusha, Vsevolod - Voka, Vera - Yashka, younger Alexandra- Shurenka-Murenko. It seems that for the Mamontovs this was the same “everyday exchange of family jokes hidden from others that make up secret cipher happy families”, as Vladimir Nabokov would wonderfully formulate much later in “Other Shores”.
Yashkin house
Apollinary Mikhailovich Vasnetsov
When "The Girl with Peaches" was written, Verusha was 12, Serov - 22. As a ten-year-old boy, Serov first came to Abramtsevo, Vera had just been born at that time. He was the same age as her beloved brothers, from childhood he lived with the Mamontovs for a long time, participated in many Abramtsevo "creative outrages." He was completely his own in the mammoth family.
Vsevolod, the elder brother of Vera, recalled Valentin Serov: “He was touchingly friends with my sisters, who were much younger than him, and at the same time he endured all sorts of pranks surprisingly good-naturedly ... On the basis of this friendship, Serov’s famous“ Girl with Peaches ”was born. , one of the pearls of the Russian portrait painting. It was only thanks to his friendship that Serov managed to persuade my sister Vera to pose for him. On a fine summer day, a twelve-year-old cheerful, lively girl is so drawn to freedom, to run around, to play pranks. And then sit in the room at the table, and even move less. This work of Serov required many sessions, my sister had to pose for her for a long time. Yes, Anton himself admitted the slowness of his work, he was very tormented by this and subsequently told his sister that he was her indebted debtor.
Vsevolod and Vera Mamontov. Photos from the 1880s.
Valentin Serov (far left) in the office of the Moscow Mamontov House. At the piano - artist Ilya Ostroukhov. Standing: Savva Mamontov's nephews and his son Sergei. Photo from the 1880s
The artist of the older generation Viktor Vasnetsov treated Vera with special tenderness. He saw her in a completely different way than young Serov. Fascinated by Russian antiquity, Vasnetsov wrote to Vera Mamontova in the form of a hawthorn. Both this dushegreya embroidered with gold and the “brocaded kichka on the dome” were surprisingly black-eyed, serious, with thick sable eyebrows and the legendary blush inherited from her mother by Vera, the daughter of the hereditary merchant Savva Mamontov. And Vasnetsov took a comic promise from Vera that she would certainly marry a Russian. At the wedding of Vera's fiancé Alexander Samarin (who completely satisfied Vasnetsov's wishes, since he came from ancient pillar nobles), the artist presented another portrait of Vera - "Girl with a Maple Branch". She is depicted on it in the same simple and sweet pearl-colored dress in which she will marry Samarin. “It was the type of a real Russian girl in character, beauty of her face, charm,” Vasnetsov will say with admiration and bitterness about Vera after her sudden death.
Workshop in Abramtsevo. On the wall is a portrait of Vera Mamontova by Vasnetsov. Under the glass is her outfit. Photo source: anashina.com
Of course, Vasnetsov's portraits of Vera cannot be compared in popularity with Serov's Girl with Peaches. But Vasnetsov also has a completely textbook picture, inspired by the image of Vera Mamontova - “Alyonushka”. The direct model for her was another girl, a poor orphan from a village neighboring Abramtsev, but it was Vera who became the source of inspiration. Vasnetsov wrote:
“The critics and, finally, myself, since I have a sketch from one orphan girl from Akhtyrka, have established that my “Alyonushka” is a natural-genre thing!
Don't know!
May be.
But I will not hide the fact that I really looked into the features of the face, especially into the radiance of the eyes of Verusha Mamontova, when I wrote Alyonushka. Here are the wonderful Russian eyes that looked at me and the whole of God's world in Abramtsevo, and in Akhtyrka, and in Vyatka villages, and on Moscow streets and bazaars, and forever live in my soul and warm it!
Vera's family life was happy, although, alas, short-lived.
And the marriage union itself between Vera Savvishna Mamontova and Alexander Dmitrievich Samarin became possible far from immediately.
In the mid-1890s, Vera Mamontova was engaged in social work in schools and shelters, following in this her mother Elizaveta Grigoryevna, who did a lot to ensure that schools appeared in the neighboring villages of Abramtsevo, Akhtyrka and Khotkovo, an infirmary and craft workshops that helped to employ peasant children. after graduation. Having grown up among people of art, Vera attended lectures in Moscow on history and literature. There she met Sofya Samarina, the niece of the Slavophil Yuri Samarin and a representative of a noble family, related to the Volkonsky, Trubetskoy, Golitsyn, Yermolov, Obolensky, poet Zhukovsky.
Sofya and Vera became close friends, and Mamontova began to visit her friend in the house. There he met with Alexander, Sophia's brother. Charming Vera captivated her seven-year-old Alexander Dmitrievich immediately and forever. He asked his parents for blessings for marriage with Vera Savvishna, but each time he received a categorical refusal. The owners of an ancient noble family and vast land allotments did not even want to hear about intermarrying with the Mamontov merchants. It was for Russian artists that Verusha was inspiration and "charm" - and for the older Samarins, she remained the daughter of a dubious "millionaire". “To marry a merchant means to dilute the blue ancient blood of the nobles too thick, too red,” Bakhrevsky figuratively explains the resulting rejection. And then a streak began for the Mammoths serious trials: left the family, carried away by the soloist of his Private Opera Tatyana Lyubatovich, Savva Ivanovich, and in 1900 he was accused of embezzlement, arrested, lost a significant part of his fortune. The scandals were public, covered in detail in the press. The Samarins pushed Vera Mamontova away, they did not want to hear about her.
So, in a state of complete and painful uncertainty, several years passed. The feelings of Vera and Alexander Dmitrievich did not die and did not weaken. And in 1901, Samarin decided to try again to get permission from his seventy-year-old father to marry Vera. The father refused this time. Apparently, the conversation was so difficult that after it the elder Samarin was smashed by a blow, and soon he was gone. More than a year had passed since his death, when Varvara Petrovna's mother, Samarina, finally gave in and blessed her son for marriage.
January 26, 1903 Vera Mamontova and Alexander Samarin went down the aisle. One after another, three children were born in their family: Yura, Liza and Seryozha. But a marriage built on deep mutual respect and love that survived many years of trials lasted less than five years. He was cut short by the sudden death of Vera on December 27, 1907. A young woman burned out in three days from transient pneumonia.
Alexander Samarin outlived his beloved by exactly a quarter of a century and was never married again. He remained in Russian history as an independent value, not just "the husband of a girl with peaches." Since 1908, Samarin was the Moscow provincial marshal of the nobility, since 1915 - chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod and a member of the State Council. After his resignation from the post of chief prosecutor, he was the chief representative of the Russian Red Cross, chairman of the Moscow Diocesan Congress. Alexander Samarin was repeatedly promoted to those positions in the hierarchy of the Russian Church, which before him could not be occupied by the laity - only clergy; the rarest case. In 1919 he was arrested by the Soviets and sentenced to death, but the sentence was later overturned. In 1925, he was again arrested and exiled to Yakutia for three years. In 1931, he was arrested again. According to the memoirs of those serving exile with her husband, Vera Savvishna, and there he remained true to his monarchical and religious beliefs, worked hard - taught doctors German, was engaged in a book on the Yakut grammar.
The upbringing of Vera's orphaned children was taken over by her younger sister Alexandra.
Alexander Dmitrievich and Vera Savvishna Samarina.
Vera Savvishna Samarina with her son Yuri. 1904
Memorial service for Vera Savvishna, served in the Abramtsevo Church of the Savior Not Made by Hands. 1908
Savva Mamontov (center) with grandchildren Seryozha, Liza and Yura (Vera's children). 1910. Far left - Alexandra Mamontova, Vera's younger sister, who devoted herself to raising her little nephews.
Alexander Samarin with his daughter Elizabeth.
Lisa and Yura Samarina (Vera's children) and Natasha Polenova (the artist's daughter).
Daughter and husband of Vera Samarina (Mamontova) in Yakut exile. Late 1920s.
Probably, after the fact, after the death of the "Abramtsevo goddess", someone remembered bad omen. After all, long before physical death Vera was already "dying" in Mikhail Vrubel's drawing "Tamara in the Coffin", made in expressive and ominous black watercolor.
The children of Savva Mamontov, with whom Vrubel was friends, often served as his models. He was friends with Andrei Mamontov, who died early, also an artist and aspiring architect. From another Vera brother, Vsevolod, the artist borrowed many features for the Demon and Lermontov's Kazbich, from Vera herself he painted Tamara.
And Vera, teasingly, called her friend Vrubel "Monelli". In the Roman dialect, it means "baby, sparrow" (Wróbel in Polish - sparrow). Some found such a reversal of the surname very offensive. But it is known that Vrubel, who was very wayward, did not have an accommodating character and was categorically sharp in his judgments, wrote only those for whom he felt sympathy.
Perhaps the best of all is Vrubel’s attitude to Vera and the Abramtsevo atmosphere itself - the atmosphere of “warmth of a rallying secret”, a happy creative conspiracy, without which neither Alyonushka, nor The Girl with Peaches, nor Vrubel’s masterpieces would have arisen - conveys a story recorded by his son Professor Adrian Prakhov Nikolai. Once, while visiting Abramtsevo, Vrubel was late for evening tea. He unexpectedly appeared in the dining room “at the moment when Verushka said something in a whisper to my sister who was sitting next to her ... Mikhail Alexandrovich exclaimed: “Speak everything in a whisper! Speak in a whisper! - I just thought of one thing. It will be called - "The Secret". We all began to fool around, whisper something to a neighbor or neighbor. Even the always quiet and calm “Aunt Liza” (Vera’s mother Elizaveta Grigorievna) smiled, looking at us, and she herself asked Vrubel in a whisper: “Do you want another cup of tea?”
A day later, Mikhail Alexandrovich brought to evening tea a female head entwined with the sacred Egyptian snake Urea.
- Here is my "Secret", - said Vrubel.
- No, - they objected to him, - this is the "Egyptian" ...
M.A. Vrubel. Egyptian
M.A. Vrubel "Tamara in the coffin".
Original article:
Once, the most modest Valentin Alexandrovich Serov reproached I. E. Grabar in a friendly conversation for the fact that the latter, in his Introduction to the History of Russian Art, gave too high an assessment of one of his early works - a portrait of Verusha Mamontova.
“I myself appreciate and, perhaps, even love him,” he said to Grabar. freshness, that special freshness that you always feel in nature and do not see in pictures. I painted for more than a month and exhausted her, poor thing, to death, I really wanted to preserve the freshness of painting with complete completeness - that's how the old masters. I thought about Repin, about Chistyakov, about the old people—the trip to Italy had a great effect then—but most of all I thought about this freshness. Never thought about it so hard before...
“Girl with Peaches” was created by Serov, who was not yet twenty-two years old, in 1887, and 25 years later, in 1913, two years after the death of the artist, Igor Grabar wrote in his monograph about Serov:
"There are creatures human spirit which outgrow the intentions of their creators many times over. It happened that a modest schoolteacher, who for many years sat with his back bent in his closet over some unnecessary manuscript, half a century after his death, turned out to be the creator of a new worldview, the father of a new philosophy, the ruler of the thoughts and moods of the age. He himself did not realize the full significance and value of his work. This is how the most extraordinary discoveries were made, how many great works of poetry, music, sculpture, architecture and painting were created. This amazing Serov portrait should be attributed to the same creatures. From the sketch "Girls in Pink", or "Girls at the Table", he grew into one of the most remarkable works of Russian painting, into a picture full of deep meaning, marking a whole strip of Russian culture.
Many years have passed since the portrait was painted, other times have come, and what was, cannot be returned. There is no longer this teenage girl in the world, with such a wonderful, inexpressibly Russian face that even if there were no Serov's signature at the bottom, one could still not doubt for a minute that this was happening in Russia, in an old landowner's house. One can probably say that this old furniture was not bought from an antique dealer, but it was hardly appreciated then: maybe at times they thought about replacing the “clumsy and uncomfortable old junk” with a fresh and “elegant headset”, but somehow there was no time to mess around - let yourself be worth it. Outside the rustic window you can't see, but you feel the alleys of the park, the sandy paths and all that inexplicable charm that pervades every trifle of the old Russian estate.
In all of Russian literature, I do not know anything that would act on me so strongly as a few lines from Tatyana Onegin's rebuke:
Now I'm happy to give
All this rags of masquerade
All this brilliance, and noise, and fumes
For a shelf of books, for a wild garden.
For our poor home
For those places where for the first time,
Onegin, I saw you.
Yes, for a humble cemetery.
Where is now the cross and the shadow of the branches
Over my poor nanny.
In Russian painting, I know only one thing that reminds me of Pushkin's incomparable poems - Serov's portrait of V. S. Mamontova. You can't see a "shelf of books" here, but I'm sure that there is, there certainly is - either right there or in the next room - as I probably know that somewhere at the end of the garden there is a "cross" and the "shadow" is quietly moving branches" over someone's dear grave."
The Abramtsevo estate near Moscow, which belonged to S. T. Aksakov, passed in 1870 into the possession of Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, a major industrialist, art lover and artist who managed to attract many remarkable Russian painters to the Abramtsevo art circle. Serov entered the Mamontov family as a child, was in it like a native, was friends with the children of Savva Ivanovich. Mamontov's son, Vsevolod Savvich, recalls:
“On the basis of this friendship, the famous Serov’s “Girl with Peaches”, one of the pearls of Russian portraiture, was born. Only thanks to his friendship, Serov managed to persuade my sister Vera to pose for him. On a fine summer day, a twelve-year-old cheerful, lively girl is drawn to freedom, to run around, to play pranks. And then sit in the room at the table, and even move less. This work of Serov required many sessions, my sister had to pose for her for a long time. Yes, Anton (the friendly nickname of Serov. - V. L.) himself admitted the slowness of his work, he was very tormented by this and subsequently told his sister that he was her indebted debtor.
Serov worked on the portrait "drunkenly", carried away by the consciousness that his business was arguing, "going like clockwork."
“Girl with Peaches” is one of the first major works by V. A. Serov. This picture, created at dawn creative life artist, revealed the enormous scale of his talent and immediately determined his place and significance in the history of Russian painting.
So, the picture depicts the common favorite of the artists visiting Abramtsevo - Vera Savvishna Mamontova, Verusha, one of the most gifted Russian women, whose life was interrupted early by an unexpected death.
Not only in the appearance of Verusha, but also in the features of her impetuous character, there was a lot of her father's - ardor, passion, enthusiasm for novelty. In the exciting boiling Abramtsevo artistic life, into the friendly and joyful creative atmosphere that reigned here, to which so much is due Russian art, in this life "with a father's spark" Verusha brought her own distinct note, which increased the general high artistic mood of the wonderful community, who lived and worked in an old Aksakov house on the high bank of the Vori River.
“It was the type of a real Russian girl in character, beauty of face, charm,” said Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov, the most devoted member of the Abramtsevo community of artists, recalling Verusha.
... Alive, tanned, with big dark radiant eyes, with a hat of rebellious thick hair, she stares at the viewer, all flooded with light bursting through the windows and playing with multi-colored reflections on the wall, on a majolica dish hung in the wall, on the backs of chairs , on a table by the window, on a candlestick, on the silver of a knife and velvety fruits lying on the table.
Joyful, unusually invigorating sunlight, falling from the windows, saturates the entire space of a large bright room, glides across Verusha's face, creating an exquisite play of lilac and blue tones on a pink blouse, shimmering with mother-of-pearl reflections, sliding with multi-colored highlights, playing with colored spots on the tablecloth.
The swarthy face of Verusha, with a blush showing through the tan, is set off in the picture by a general bluish, cold tone, coloring, which is softened by the warm tones of fruits and leaves and the sonorous tone of the red bow on the chest.
Throughout the portrait, one can feel the thoughtful compositional completeness that distinguishes all subsequent portrait works by Serov. The figure is inscribed in the environment, as in a natural living environment, which turns the portrait into a painting, and the skillfully painted space saturated with light and air - not only the dining room, but also the adjacent living room and the park outside the window - makes this picture especially attractive, exciting, alive.
The portrait of Verusha Mamontova, which amazed all of Moscow at that time, is one of the most beautiful creations of Russian portraiture, not only in terms of the strength of execution, but also in terms of the type of person depicted, which bears the features of national Russian beauty.
Academician M. V. Alpatov wrote about this portrait:
“Who does not know in the Tretyakov Gallery“ Girls with Peaches ”, this cute swarthy naughty girl? She only sat down at the table for a moment, looking askance at us with her brown eyes, in which a light lurked. Her nostrils flare a little, as if she can't catch her breath from a fast run. Her lips are seriously compressed, but there is so much childish carefree and happy slyness in them! .. Everyone knows her like that, she has become a universal favorite. The sisters of "Girls with Peaches" can be found in Russian literature in Pushkin, Turgenev, Chekhov, especially Tolstoy.
The freshness of youth that blows over us from the face of Verusha Mamontova is conveyed by Serov with amazing, incomprehensible subtlety and nobility. Starting from this amazing debut, one can confidently speak of Serov's contribution to the world of fine arts.
...And now bright sunlight fills the familiar dining room in the museum-estate "Abramtsevo". The only thing missing here is the dining table, at which dear Verusha once sat, posing for her beloved older friend. Everything else has been preserved as it was under Serov and Serov: on the stand stands the figure of a grenadier - a toy made by Sergiev handicraftsmen, painted by Serov, above it is a majolica plate. The sun shines through the window...
The painting "Girl with Peaches" was in Abramtsevo for a long time, in the same room where it was painted. And then it was transferred to the Tretyakov Gallery, while a copy of this work is currently hanging in Abramtsevo.
The section was created based on the materials of the book "Remarkable canvases" by the publishing house "Leningrad" in 1962.
Source;http://help-computers.ru/Girl-with-Peaches.html