Eminent
Russian painter and graphic artist.
He
was the son of composer Alexander Serov and piano player Valentina Serova. In
1873-1874, after his father’s death, lived with his mother in Munich where he
took drawing lessons from R. Kepping. In 1874-1875, he studied under Ilya Repin
in Paris. Returning to Russia in 1875, he resided in St. Petersburg. During his
stay in Kiev (1876-1877), he studied at Nikolay Murashko’s Drawing School. From
1878, he studied under Ilya Repin and later under Pavel Chistyakov with the
Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. Serov’s first notable works (Devochka s persikamee [“A Girl with
Peaches”], 1887, and Devochka
Osveschennaya Solntsem [“A Girl Lit by the Sun”], 1888, – both are at the
Tretyakov Gallery) propelled him to the ranks of Russia’s top artists. He
regularly exhibited his works at the most important Russian art shows both in
Russia and abroad. In 1899, he joined the Mir
iskusstva [“The World of Art”] Society. He taught at the Moscow School of
Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (1898-1909). He worked in book graphics
and illustrated anniversary editions of books by Mikhail Lermontov (1891) and
Alexander Pushkin (1899) as well as Nikolay Kutepov’s Tsarskaya I imperatorskaya okhota na Rusee [“Tsars’ and Emperors’
Hunting in Rus”] (early 1900s), Ivan Krylov’s Basnee [“Fables”] (1896-1911). He showed his works at Russian art
exhibitions in Paris and Berlin (1906). He created play bills and stage sets
for Dyagilev’s Saisons Russes [“Russian
Seasons”] in Paris and London (1909 and 1911).
Serov
worked only four years in engraving (1896-1899) but his contribution to Russian
book graphics proved to be profound, his works gaining an important place in
the development of Russian prints. His first pieces made at Math?’s studio are
either lost or unidentified. Valentin Serov’s etchings cover a broad range of
subjects and reflect, overall, the strong sides of his talent – portraits (Mathe’s
portrait, “Fyodor Chaliapin as Ivan the Terrible” and a self-portrait),
allegorical animal paintings (illustrations to Ivan Krylov’s Basnee [“Fables”], landscapes
(Domotkanovo landscapes). In 1980, there was an exhibition of the artist’s
etchings at the State Russian Museum.
