Zinaida Serebryakova (1884-1967)

3. E. Serebriakova grew up in an atmosphere of art. Her father, EA Lancer, was a sculptor, and she was brought up (after his father's death in 1886), along with his brother, the future schedule E. Lansere in the family's grandfather (mother's), N. L. Benoit , St. Petersburg architect.

Formal artistic education she has received and its enviable professionalism was required primarily influenced by the environment, and even more - his own efforts and the most severe demands of himself.

She continuously worked on location, mostly in Neskuchny, a small estate near Kharkov, making sketches, landscapes and portraits, which are dominated by the image of the local peasants.

The public Serebriakova first came out in 1910, pointing to VII show CPX 14 works, and among them a small painting "At the Dressing" (1909), represents a self-portrait. So much mental freshness and clarity, it was in this picture, so confident and mature she was done, what about Serebrjakovoj once talked about as uncommon phenomenon.

In 1912, she joined the association "World of Art", with many members whom it has a friendly and family relations. In 1914 Serebriakova spent several months in Italy (trip interrupted by the First World War), which closely studied the art of the Renaissance. In the same year she created a charming picture "Children," a group portrait of their children.

But the main body of the artist were given plots of peasant life. Two paintings "Bath" (1912, 1913) represented the spectacle, full of mental and physical harmony, charm nenaigrannoy vigor. After them followed the painting "Peasants" (1914; fragment of a large composition, destroyed the artist herself), "The Harvest" (1915), two versions of "Whitening canvas" and "Sleeping Maid" (all 1917).

These works are now perceived as a requiem for the best that distinguished the pre-revolutionary Russian countryside. Long-term observations of village life here have been enriched by the influence of poetry A. Venetsianov , which Serebriakova very fond of, and experience the great masters of the Italian Renaissance. The artist was undoubtedly a monumental gift, but life circumstances did not allow her to realize that gift.

The revolution has invaded her life dramatically. In March 1919, her husband died and she was left a widow with four children, lived first in Neskuchny, and when the estate was burned, moved to Kharkov, where odd jobs. At the end of 1920 Serebrjakovoj offered a professorship at the Academy of Arts of the former, and she moved to Petrograd, but due to illness to teaching has not started. Then briefly worked in the studio of visual aids. Finally managed to get back to the creativity - she painted portraits, most often their loved ones.

Passion for ballet prompted her to create several small paintings and portraits of dancers. In 1924 he went to Paris Serebriakova, assuming there and make some return to their homeland, but soon it became impossible to return. Paris did not live up to expectations: it worked, still does not spare himself, but it did not bring prosperity, and only allowed to support life at a decent modesty, but what came out from under her hand, markedly inferior execution in the years before the Revolution. The reason was not only to everyday challenges, but mainly in the fact that it lost the native soil.