In previous publications we wrote how the lives of some artists, in particular Alexei Savrasov, Rembrandt, Ivan Aivazovsky and Alexander Ivanov, have changed in 10 years. But this topic is quite extensive, and it is always interesting to trace the evolution of creativity, and to understand what could have changed over such a long period of time.
In 1878, Valentin Serov was a guest in provincial Akhtyrka. By that time he had already traveled half of Europe, was in Paris, where he was neighbors with girls of easy behavior, Munich and Geneva, and felt already tired of all these foreign travel. And here, at last, is ordinary country life. He does not want to know anything but hunting and horseback riding, books are dusty in a distant closet, and the sciences he has only cause boredom. However, he enjoys drawing, but his drawings, though diligent, are far from perfect.
In Akhtyrka. A wooden house. 1878
However, Valya can be excused: he was only 13 years old, and he was a guest with his mother at his stepfather Vasily Nemchinov, and there is still little to give away in him the future famous artist.
Ten years later, having been in Italy, and having seen enough of the paintings of the old masters, Serov decides to write only “about the poison”, that is, to radically depart from the usual work of our traveling artists.
Open window. Lilac
Instead of the seemingly outdated realism - new-fashioned impressionism, and instead of artworks showing the suffering of the “humiliated and oppressed” - cheerful portraits, looking at which involuntarily want to smile.
Girl with Peaches
By that time he had already painted the masterpiece “Girl with Peaches” and began to create another of his famous paintings - “Girl Illuminated by the Sun”. On it he depicted his cousin Maria Simonovich and during the posing, which lasted several months, so exhausted the poor girl that she left for St. Petersburg, citing the need to continue studying for a sculptor. But this is exactly the case when everything came together properly, otherwise Serov would surely have made things worse with his endless and unnecessary corrections.
A girl illuminated by the sun
He realized this in his old age, when, looking at his painting in the Tretyakov Gallery, he said: “I painted it, and later, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how hard I tried, I still didn't get anything good, I was exhausted by it”.
Portrait of Olga Serova
In 1900, Pierre Auguste Renoir painted a portrait of his young son Jean. The boy he was active and restless, and to make him sit still for at least an hour was difficult. But then he became interested in embroidering a dress for a toy, and Pierre did not have much difficulty quickly sketch a sketch of the future painting.
Pierre Auguste Renoir. Jean Renoir at sewing. 1900
But do not think that Pierre really wanted a girl, and therefore deliberately did not cut his son's hair and offered him exclusively girlish entertainment. All simpler Pierre liked the way the light reflected from the childish golden curls of Jean and therefore did not want to spoil such beauty, especially since it can be immortalized in numerous portraits. He was also sure that long hair protected his head from bruises, and since Jean was a restless boy, it was a kind of protection.
Pierre Auguste Renoir. Jean in hunting costume. 1910
As it turned out, to protect was what - later Jean became a famous film director, and in the portrait of 1910, when he was already 16 years old, he does not look like a girl, and classes prefer male and brutal.
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