Russian painter Serov's painting style

Apr 29
08:37

2013

jerryailily

jerryailily

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Serov was an outstanding Russian portrait painter in the alternate period of the nineteenth century and twentieth Century. And he was an important representative of Russian realism painting at the beginning of this century.

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Serov was an outstanding Russian portrait painter in the alternate period of the nineteenth century and twentieth Century. And he was an important representative of Russian realism painting at the beginning of this century. Born in a music composer and activist family in St. Petersburg,Russian painter Serov's painting style  Articles Serov had received a good art education. At the age of 9, Servos began to follow Repin to study painting. In 1880, he was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and got the guidance of the sketch artist Cisca Kopf. Then Serov followed Repin to ZAZ and learned how to observe image from life, and often went to the Abolamucaifu manor which Russian Progress and democratic cultural persons settled. In 1885, Serov graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and began the independent artistic creation.    

Serov’s famous works were Girls and Peach and Girls under the Sun. These two pieces of works fully showed Serov's talent and excellent presentation skills. The fresh style, bright colors and view of the harmony between man and nature shocked the current painting world and even a lot of people did not believe that these two works were from 20-year-old youths. After entering 90s, Serov began to be famous for portraits and there were lots of social celebrities pursuing paintings. Serov once painted for the painter Korovin, Repin, Levitan, historian Sabelin, Italy singer Domallo, etc. At that time, Servos followed one instruction of Repin, “Color is our tool and it should reflect our thoughts. Color tone is not only the gorgeous color, it should reflect the picture of the mental and emotional, like music chords, it should seize the audience.”    

Portrait of Efufo showed a young Russian girl sitting back, with fluffy hair and face and body in the backlighting surface, which increased the difficulty of performance for a painter. But Serov made sophisticated processing for the special light effect and made the light and a few high light figures in the outline of the line shine with a good tune. Efufo wore a white coat with wide sleeves and a thick brown cloth skirt, sitting on a piece of dark green mat. Besides her, there was a basket of flowers with bright and pure colors, suggesting the beautiful youth. Behind the girl, there was a bookcase in the wall where several books scattered piled up. The strokes were bold, smooth and full of rhythm beauty. Because the large area of the face was against the light, so the light was relatively weak. Serov adopted the soft brush to paint and made unified generalization after the detailed depiction. In this portrait, Serov used different strokes to bring out the different texture of skin, hair, clothing and wall. In the description of the hand, the use of color was thin, the dark color was transparent and light treatment method was unified and concise. The distant wall was used in thin painting method, which was far from the past.    

The creation of Serov served as a link between the past and future and was a perfect representative. In the early stage of the Serov’s creative activity, it was the prosperity of Peredvizhniki in a period of 80 years. In the late Serov’s creation, it was after 1905 when the various schools of art emerged. Dramatic changes in the art world also influenced the creation of Serov. He had actively participated in the activities of "art world" to explore new techniques of expression. He once pursued bold attempts in the form of art. The development process of Serov's creation was of representative significance in the development of Russian art at the end of 19th century and early 20th century. Serov's painting not only showed the further improvement of the Russian art in content and technique, but also demonstrated the new changes in early 20th century oil painting experience.    

Serov's creation covered a wide range of subjects including portraits, landscapes, historical painting, genre painting, illustrations, and even the stage art. But his portrait paintings were the most excellent. Portrait of Jude Bow was made after Serov becoming famous. In 1890s and at the beginning of 20th century, Servos accepted a series of portraits. Serov's clients were from all over the world, including prominent figures like the duke. However, both the court characters or rich dignitaries, Serov injected his artistic views into his paintings.