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Stars of the Epoch. Zinaida Serebryakova

SERAFIMA CHEBOTAR

Z. Serebryakova. Self-portrait in red. 1921

Perhaps her name is not as famous as she deserves to be. But everyone probably remembers one of her paintings, the self-portrait “3a on the Toilet” - once you see it, it’s impossible to forget it. A young girl combs her long hair in front of the mirror, and the world
her full of happiness and light. It seems that the artist’s whole life was just as joyful and happy - like that winter morning when Zina Serebryakova looked in the mirror...

1964. Paris

She was born into a family where it was impossible not to draw: in the house they liked to say that “all children are born with a pencil in their hand.” Zinaida's father, Evgeny Aleksandrovich Lansere, was an excellent sculptor - one of the most talented animal painters. His wife Ekaterina Nikolaevna Benois came from a famous family of artists - she was the daughter of Nikolai Benois, a famous architect.

E. A. and E. N. Lansere, Serebryakova’s parents

Almost all of his children followed in their father’s footsteps: Leonty Nikolaevich also became an architect (and his daughter Nadezhda, who married Jonah von Ustinov, became the mother of the famous actor and writer Peter Ustinov), Albert Nikolaevich taught watercolor painting at the Academy of Arts, but became most famous Alexander Nikolaevich is a famous painter, one of the founders of the World of Art, a famous theater artist and for some time the head of the Hermitage art gallery.

E. N. Lansere with children. On the left in her mother’s arms is Zina

“Sometimes you look around like this: this relative, this one, but this one probably didn’t draw. Then it turns out that he also drew. And not bad either,” recalled one of Benoit’s relatives. Ekaterina Nikolaevna herself also drew - her specialty was graphics.

Louis Jules Benoit, Serebryakova's great-grandfather, with his wife and children. Third from the left (with a flag) is the artist’s grandfather Nikolai Benois.
Olivier, around 1816

She and Evgeniy Lanceray had six children - and half of them connected their lives with art: son Nikolai became, following the example of his grandfather, an architect, and Evgeniy achieved recognition as a muralist. Zina, the youngest of the Lansere children, grew up in an atmosphere of service to art from early childhood. She was born on December 10, 1884 in the Lansere Neskuchnoye estate, near Kharkov, and her first years passed there. But, unfortunately, in 1886, at the fortieth year of his life, the father of the family died of transient consumption. Having buried her husband, Ekaterina Nikolaevna and her children returned to her parents’ home in St. Petersburg.

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois, the artist’s uncle. Serebryakova 1953 (left)
Albert Nikolaevich Benois, the artist’s uncle. Serebryakova 1924 (right)

The situation in the Benois family was very unusual: three generations of artists, sculptors and architects lived under one roof, breathing art, living it and thinking about it. Disputes about painting, about the merits or demerits of architectural plans, advice on drawing techniques or theoretical discussions about pure art filled the house.

A.K. Kavos, Serebryakova’s great-grandfather

It is not surprising that the fragile, big-eyed Zina learned to draw almost before she learned to talk. According to relatives, she grew up
withdrawn, shy, “a sickly and rather unsociable child, in which she resembled her father and did not at all resemble her mother, nor her brothers and sisters, who all
they were distinguished by a cheerful and sociable disposition,” wrote Alexander Benois. She spent almost all her free time drawing - with the help of her brothers and uncles, she very early mastered the technique of watercolor and oil painting, and tirelessly trained all day long, drawing everything that surrounded her - rooms at home, relatives, landscapes outside the window, plates with dinner ...

Z. Serebryakova. Portrait of A.N. Benois. 1924

The greatest authority for Zina was Alexander Benois: when he, who discovered
for himself the work of the almost forgotten Venetsianov, became an ardent promoter of his manner - his niece also fell in love with this artist. Alexander's works - bright peasant landscapes full of inner joy, female images and genre scenes from Venetsianov's paintings - made a deep impression on Zina. Inspired by Benois, Zina wrote a lot in Neskuchny, where she spent every
summer, peasant nature - fields and village houses, peasant women and their children.

In the gymnasium. In the first row, third from the right - Zina Lansere. Late 1890s

After graduating from high school in 1900, Zina entered the Princess Tenisheva Art School: this educational institution was supposed to prepare young people for admission to the Academy of Arts, and one of the teachers was Ilya Repin himself. Students under his leadership painted plaster, went to sketches and copied masterpieces of the Hermitage - the paintings of the old masters gave Zina strict lines, restraint of composition and a love of realistic style as opposed to impressionism and its derivatives that were beginning to come into fashion. “I worked a lot, wrote a lot, and was not at all susceptible to artistic fashion. She did what came from her heart,” her brother said about Zinaida.

1900s Self-Portrait

In the fall of 1902, Zinaida and her mother went to Italy - for several months they wandered through museums and galleries, examined ancient ruins and looked into cathedrals, painted sun-drenched shores and hills overgrown with dense greenery. Returning in the spring of 1903, Zina began studying in the class of Osip Immanuilovich Bran, a fashionable portrait painter: they recalled that Bran, overwhelmed with orders, had few
paid attention to his students, but even observing his work was very valuable.

In the workshop of O. E. Braz. In the second row, second from left is Zinaida Lansere. Early 1900s

But the months in her beloved Neskuchny brought Zinaida the most joy - drawing
She was ready for him endlessly. Alexander Benois described Neskuchnoye, the favorite corner of the whole family, in this way: “Rows of low hills stretched one after another, increasingly dissolving and turning blue, and along their round slopes meadows and fields turned yellow and green; In some places, small, lush clumps of trees stood out, among which bright white huts with their friendly square windows stood out. The windmills sticking out everywhere on the hills gave a peculiar picturesqueness. All this breathed with grace...”

Neskuchnoe estate, Kursk province. A. B. Serebryakov, 1946

<...>There, in Neskuchny, Zinaida met her fate. On the opposite bank of the Muromka River, the Serebryakovs lived on their own farm - the mother of the family, Zinaida Aleksandrovna, was the sister of Zina’s father. Her children grew up with Lancere's children, and it is not surprising that Boris Serebryakov and Zina Lancere fell in love with each other as children. They had long agreed to get married, and the parents on both sides did not object to the choice of children, but there were other difficulties: Lanseray and Benoit traditionally adhered to the Catholic religion - French blood flowed in their veins (the first Benoit fled to Russia from the French Revolution, Lanseray's ancestor remained after war of 1812), only slightly diluted with Italian and German, and the Serebryakovs were Orthodox. In addition, Zina and Boris were cousins, and both religions did not approve of such closely related marriages. It took a lot of time and even more trouble with the church authorities for the lovers to obtain permission to marry.

Z. Serebryakova. Portrait of B.A. Serebryakov. ca.1905

Zinaida Lansere and Boris Serebryakov got married in Neskuchny on September 9, 1905. Soon after the wedding, Zina left for Paris - every self-respecting artist simply had to visit this world capital of art. Soon Boris joined Zina - he studied at the Institute of Railways, wanted to be an engineer, build railways in Siberia.

Z. E. Serebryakova. Early 1900s

In Paris, Zina was stunned by the diversity of the latest trends, art schools, trends and styles, but she herself remained faithful to realism, although it acquired some modernist features under the influence of the Parisian air: the lines in Serebryakova’s paintings became alive, like the Impressionists, they had movement and indescribable joy of the moment. On the advice of Alexandre Benois, Zina studied for some time at the studio of the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere - however, to her
Much to our disappointment, little attention was paid to direct training here, preferring only to evaluate completed work. In fact, Serebryakova’s artistic education ended at the Paris Academy: from now on she moved along her chosen creative path independently.

House in Neskuchny. A. B. Serebryakov, 1946

Returning from France, the Serebryakovs settled in Neskuchny, only returning to St. Petersburg for the winter. It was in Neskuchny that their children were born: in 1906 Evgeniy, a year later - Alexander. The family life of the Serebryakovs was surprisingly happy: so different in character and appearance, hobbies and temperament, they, as it turned out, complemented each other perfectly. Several years passed in calm happiness...

In Neskuchny with children Shura, Zhenya, Tata and Katya, 1914

Zina took care of the children, drew a lot, waited for her husband to return from his trips - during one of these waits she painted that very self-portrait. “My husband Boris Anatolyevich,” Serebryakova recalled, “was on a business trip to explore the northern region of Siberia, in the taiga... I decided to wait for his return in order to return to St. Petersburg together. The winter of this year came early, everything was covered with snow - our garden, the fields around - there were snowdrifts everywhere, it was impossible to go out, but the house on the farm was warm and cozy. I started drawing myself in the mirror and had fun depicting all sorts of little things “on the toilet.”

Zinaida Serebryakova
Behind the toilet. Self-portrait, 1909
Canvas, oil. 75×65 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

At the end of December 1909, brother Evgeniy, a member of the World of Art group, wrote to Zinaida with a request to send some works to the upcoming exhibition of the World of Art. Without thinking twice, she sent him the recently completed self-portrait “Behind the Toilet.” At the exhibition, where works by Serov, Kustodiev, Vrubel hung, this painting by an unknown artist not only did not get lost, but created a real sensation. Stunned by the skill of his own niece, Alexander Benois enthusiastically wrote: “Serebryakova’s self-portrait is undoubtedly the most pleasant, the most joyful thing... There is complete spontaneity and simplicity: true artistic temperament, something ringing, young, laughing, sunny and clear, something absolutely artistic ... What is especially sweet to me about this portrait is that there is no “demonism” in it, which has recently become downright street vulgarity. Even the certain sensuality contained in this image is of the most innocent, spontaneous quality. There is something childish in this side glance of the “forest nymph”, something playful, cheerful... And both the face itself and everything in this picture is young and fresh... There is not a trace of any modernist sophistication here . But the simple and even vulgar environment of life in the light of youth becomes charming and joyful.” On the advice of Valentin Serov, who was also impressed by the skill and unprecedented cheerfulness of the painting, “Behind the Toilet” and two other paintings were acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery.

Z. E. Serebryakova draws, on the left is B. A. Serebryakov with his son Zhenya. 1900s

The success of Serebryakova and her film was incredible - it seemed to both the public and critics that
that from now on Serebryakova will deservedly join the first ranks of Russian painters. “In the artist’s art, with rare power, the main, most wonderful element of creativity is revealed,” the critics wrote, “that excitement, joyful, deep and heartfelt, which creates everything in art and with which only one can truly feel and love the world and life.” She was accepted as a member of the “World of Art”, invited to galleries and vernissages, but Zinaida avoided noisy gatherings, preferring the beauty and peace of her native Neskuchny to the bustling St. Petersburg, and quiet evenings with her family to conversations with critics and fellow workers. She gave birth to her husband two more daughters - Tatyana in 1912 and a year later Katya, who was called Cat at home.

At work in his workshop in Neskuchny...

And yet, these years are considered the heyday of her art: in the early 1910s, Serebryakova created such unforgettable canvases as “Bather” - a portrait of her sister Catherine, combining classicist grandeur and the indescribable lightness of the wind playing in her hair, “Bath”, “ Peasants”, “Sleeping Peasant Woman”, “Whitening Canvas”, self-portraits and images of children. In her canvases, the Ukrainian sun is combined with the joyful lightness of the brushstroke, beautiful bodies live in unity with the landscape, and the eyes in the portraits with their almond-shaped cut and slight slyness subtly resemble the eyes of Serebryakova herself.

Z. Serebryakova. Bather

In 1916, Alexander Benois received an order to paint the Kazansky railway station in Moscow: he invited Evgeny Lanceray, Boris Kustodiev, Mstislav Dobuzhinsky and Zinaida Serebryakova to take part in the work. Zinaida received panels on an oriental theme - perhaps the Asian flavor was especially close to her, because her beloved Boris at that time headed a survey party for the construction of a railway in South-Eastern Siberia. Unfortunately, this order was withdrawn, and Serebryakova’s sketches - embodied in beautiful female images - India, Japan, Siam and Turkey - remained unincarnated.

Family on a farm in Neskuchny. In the center in Panama - W.E. 1900s

Zinaida met the revolution in her beloved Neskuchny. At first we lived as usual - the trends of the capital always took a very long time to reach the provinces, but then the world seemed to collapse. One day, peasants came to the Serebryakovs’ house to warn them that their house would soon be destroyed, like all the landowners’ estates in the area. Zinaida, who lived there with her children and elderly mother - Boris was in Siberia - got scared, quickly packed her things and fled to Kharkov. Later they told her - the estate and the truth
was destroyed, the house burned down, and with it - her paintings, drawings, books...

Z. Serebryakova. Self-portrait in a white blouse. 1922

In Kharkov they found themselves almost without funds. But even then, Zina continued to paint - however, due to lack of funds, she had to take charcoal and pencil instead of her favorite oil paints. Fortunately, Zina managed to get a job at the local Archaeological Museum, sketching exhibits for catalogs. But the connection with her husband was lost - for several months Zina was looking for him throughout Russia.

“Not a line from Bori, it’s so scary that I’m going completely crazy,” she wrote to her brother. At the beginning of 1919, she finally met her husband, miraculously reaching Moscow for the occasion, and even persuaded Boris to go to Kharkov for a couple of days to see the children. On the way back, his heart sank, he decided to return, moved to a military train - and there he became infected with typhus. He barely managed to reach his family and died in his wife’s arms. Ironically, he, like Zinaida’s father, was only thirty-nine years old... Ekaterina Nikolaevna Lanceray wrote about this day to one of her sons: “It was terrible, the agony lasted five minutes: before that he said and no one thought that he'll be gone in five minutes. You can imagine, my dear, what kind of grief it was - the crying, the sobbing of the children, the boys were inconsolable (Katyusha did not understand). Zinok cried little, but did not leave Borechka...”

Z. Serebryakova. Portrait of B.A. Serebryakov. 1913

Zinaida, faithful to her husband’s memory, will never marry again, will not fall in love, and will not allow herself any hobbies. She knew how to love, but only once and for the rest of her life. She was left with four children and an elderly mother, but she no longer had the same joy or love. “...It always seemed to me,” she wrote to a friend, “that to be loved and to be in love is happiness, I was always, as if in a child, not noticing the life around me, and I was happy, although even then I knew sadness and tears ... It’s so sad to realize that life is already behind us, that time is running out, and there is nothing more but loneliness, old age and melancholy ahead, but there is still so much tenderness and feeling in the soul.” Serebryakova expressed her feelings of those difficult days in one of the most tragic paintings “House of Cards”, an artistic metaphor of that sad time: four children dressed in mourning are building a house out of cards, fragile as life itself.

Z. Serebryakova. "House of cards"

In the fall of 1920, Serebryakova was able to return to Petrograd: not without the help of Alexandre Benois, she was not only offered a choice of two jobs - to work in a museum or the Academy of Arts - but also provided travel for the whole family. However, Serebryakova preferred independent work: forced work in the museum limited, as it seemed to her, her talent, and she could not and did not want to teach anyone other than her children. She moved back into Benoit's house - but how he had changed!

“Benois House” in St. Petersburg on Nikolskaya, 15 (now Glinka Street)

Books and furnishings were looted, the former family home was compacted, dividing the huge apartments into many small apartments. However, fortunately, the actors moved in with Benoit - and the creative atmosphere that the guests of the house so appreciated was preserved. Former friends, brothers, connoisseurs and collectors came to visit Zina - they were attracted by her passion for art, and the indescribable comfort that she knew how to create around herself literally out of nothing, and her own beauty - both external and internal, “I I still won’t forget what a strong impression her beautiful radiant eyes made on me,” recalled the artist’s colleague Galina Teslenko. - Despite great grief... and insurmountable everyday difficulties - four children and a mother! — she looked much younger than her age, and her face was striking in the freshness of its colors. The deep inner life she lived created such an external charm that there was no way to resist.”

In the St. Petersburg apartment of A.N. Benoit. Z.E. Serebryakova, her mother Ekaterina Nikolaevna, sister Maria Evgenievna and brother Nikolai Evgenievich

However, Serebryakova’s work did not find its way to the court in post-revolutionary Petrograd: always very critical of her work, Zinaida could not agree to design buildings or demonstrations, like many artists, and the “revolutionary” futurist art so valued at that time was not close to her. Instead, she continues to draw her children, landscapes, self-portraits... She especially often painted children, whom she adored.

Z. Serebryakova. Self-portrait with daughters. 1921

“I was struck by the beauty of all Zinaida Evgenievna’s children,” wrote Galina Teslenko. -Each one in its own way. The youngest, Katenka - the other children called her Cat - is a fragile porcelain figurine with golden hair and a delicate, delightfully colored face. The second, Tata - older than Katenka - amazed with her dark motherly eyes, alive, shiny, joyful, eager to do something right now, at the moment. She was brown-haired and also had magnificent complexion. Katya was about seven years old at that time, Tata was about eight. The first impression was later completely justified. Tata turned out to be a lively, playful girl, Katya was quieter and calmer. Zinaida Evgenievna’s sons were not alike: Zhenya is blond with blue eyes, with a beautiful profile, and Shurik is brown-haired with dark hair, too gentle and affectionate for a boy.”

Z. Serebryakova. This is how Binka (Zhenya Serebryakov) fell asleep. 1908

The Serebryakovs lived a very difficult life: there were few orders, and they were poorly paid. As one of her friends wrote, “Collectors generously took her works for free, for food and used items.” And Galina Teslenko recalled: “In material terms, life was difficult for the Serebryakovs, very difficult. As before, cutlets made from potato peels were a delicacy for lunch.” When daughter Tatyana became interested in ballet and was even able to enroll in a choreographic school, Zinaida shared her love for dancing - she was allowed to be present backstage at the Mariinsky Theater on the days of performances, and she enthusiastically drew ballerinas, scenes from performances, and everyday sketches of backstage life.

Z. Serebryakova. Portrait of the son Alexander. 1925

Gradually, the artistic life of the former capital returned to its previous course: exhibitions and salons were organized, visitors and local collectors bought some works. In 1924, a large exhibition of works by Soviet artists was held in the United States, including Serebryakova. Two of her works were immediately bought, and inspired by this success, Zinaida decided to go abroad - perhaps there she would receive orders and be able to earn money that she would send to Russia. Having received the necessary documents with the help of the same Alexander Benois, in September 1924 Zinaida, leaving her children with her mother, left for France.

Z. Serebryakova. Portrait of E.N. Lansere. Mother. 1912

“I was twelve years old when my mother left for Paris,” Tatyana Serebryakova recalled many years later. — The steamer going to Stetin was moored at the Lieutenant Schmidt Bridge. Mom was already on board... I almost fell into the water, my friends caught me. Mom believed that she was leaving for a while, but my despair was boundless, as if I felt that I was parting with my mother for a long time, for decades...” And so it happened: Zinaida Serebryakova was able to return to her homeland only for a short time, after three decades.

House in Paris on the street. Campagne-Premier, 31 The last workshop of Z.E. Serebryakova (middle window on the top floor)

At first, Serebryakova managed to get an order in Paris for a large decorative panel, but then things didn’t go so well. She painted a lot of portraits and even gained some fame, although she did not bring in almost any income. “Impractical, she does a lot of portraits for nothing for the promise of advertising, but everyone, receiving wonderful things, forgets about her and doesn’t lift a finger,” Konstantin Somov wrote about her. Although Zinaida was almost French by blood, she did not communicate with almost any of the locals in Paris - shy and reserved by nature, she painfully felt like a stranger in France. Her social circle consisted of a few emigrants she knew from Petrograd, whom she met at exhibitions or at Alexander Benois's - he left the USSR in 1926, also intended to return someday, but in the end he remained abroad.

[b]
Workshop in Paris on Rue Blanche. Z.E.Serebryakova

Only travel, during which she painted a lot, saved her from longing for home and for the children left there: first she traveled around Brittany, then visited Switzerland, and in 1928, with the help of Baron Brouwer, who greatly appreciated her work, she was able to travel to North Africa.

The trip to Morocco seemed to resurrect Serebryakova: a riot of colors, the sun, the long-forgotten joy of life and the lightness of being returned to her paintings. Many of the Moroccan works were later exhibited - the press responded very favorably to them, calling Serebryakova “a master of European significance,” “one of the most remarkable Russian artists of the era,” but the exhibition did not have much resonance. At that time, completely different art was in fashion, and the few reviews of Serebryakova’s drawings were drowned in an avalanche of articles about abstract art, surrealism and other modernist movements in painting. Her paintings seemed outdated, outdated, and gradually the artist herself began to feel unnecessary, outdated...

Z. Serebryakova. Morocco. Marrakesh

In letters to her family, Zina constantly complained of loneliness, of longing for her children, from which she gave up. “Here I am alone,” she wrote to her mother, “no one takes to heart that starting without a penny and with such responsibilities as mine (sending everything I earn to children) is incredibly difficult, and time goes by, and I’m struggling.” everything is in the same place. At least now - it’s impossible for me to work here in such heat, stuffiness and with such a crowd everywhere, I’m incredibly tired of everything... I’m worried about how our winter will be... I’m sending less and less money, i.e. To. Now there is such a money crisis here (with the fall of the franc) that there is no time for orders. In general, I often repent that I have traveled so hopelessly far from my family...”

In the end, the relatives managed to send her son Shura to her: as soon as he arrived, the young man rushed to help his mother. He painted scenery for film studios, designed exhibitions, illustrated books, and created interior sketches. Over time, he grew into a wonderful artist, whose watercolors preserved the magical appearance of pre-war Paris.

“He draws all day long, tirelessly,” Zinaida wrote. “He is often dissatisfied with his things and gets terribly irritated, and then he and Katyusha fight over trifles and upset me terribly with their harsh characters (that’s right, both took after me, and not Borechka!).” Katya was able to be transported to Paris in 1928 with the help of one of her grateful clients: Zinaida did not see the rest of the children for many years.

Z. Serebryakova. Collioure. Katya on the terrace. 1930

Drawing remained for Zinaida Serebryakova the only occupation, the main entertainment and way of life. Together with their daughter, they went either to make sketches at the Louvre, or to sketch in the Bois de Boulogne, but Zinaida could not help but feel that she was moving further and further away from the creative life that always seemed to be seething in Paris. “I remember my hopes,” the plans of her youth - how much she wanted to do, how much was planned, and nothing came of it - life broke down in its prime,” she wrote to her mother. She really literally physically felt that her whole life was falling apart like a house of cards - part here, part there, and there was no way to put it back together or fix it...

Early 20s

Serebryakova strived with all her heart to return to Russia - but for some reason the long efforts could not be crowned with success. “If you knew, dear Uncle Shura,” she wrote to Alexandre Benois, “how I dream and want to leave in order to somehow change this life, where every day there is only acute concern for food (always insufficient and bad) and where my the income is so insignificant that it is not enough for the basic necessities. Orders for portraits are terribly rare and are paid in pennies, consumed before the portrait is ready.”

Z. Serebryakova. Self-portrait. 1938

She didn’t have time before the war, and after that she already felt too old, tired, sick... She was visited by Soviet artists who came to Paris - Sergei Gerasimov, Dementy Shmarinov - they called her to the USSR, but after so many years she could not make up her mind, she was afraid to be of no use to anyone there.

“Maybe I should come back too? - she wrote to her daughter. - But who will need me there? You, dear Tatusik, can’t sit on your neck. And where to live there? I’ll be superfluous everywhere, and even with drawing, folders...”

Meanwhile, the children left behind in the Soviet Union grew up. Evgeniy graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Leningrad Institute of Municipal Construction, worked in Vladivostok, and returned to Leningrad, where he was involved in the restoration of Peterhof. Tatyana, having graduated from the choreographic school, eventually also exchanged dance for decorative art: she painted fabrics, worked as a graphic designer and decorator in theaters, for example, in the famous Moscow Art Theater. At the end of the fifties, when the “thaw” made the first thawed patches in the “Iron Curtain,” Tatyana decided to visit her mother.

Z. E. Serebryakova in the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. 1900s

“Thank you for writing and that you want to start “actively” collecting documents, etc. for a trip to us! - she responded. - This will be such a great joy for us that I’m even afraid to believe in such happiness... When I left on August 24, 1924, I thought that in a few months I would see all my adored ones - my grandmother and children, but my whole life passed in anticipation, in some kind of annoyance pinching my heart and in self-reproach for having parted with you...”

In 1960, they were finally able to see each other: the grown Tatyana and the aged Zinaida Evgenievna. “Mom never liked acting,” Tatyana recalled, “I couldn’t imagine what she looked like now, and I was glad to see that she had strangely changed little. She remained true to herself not only in her beliefs in art, but also in her appearance. The same bangs, the same black bow at the back, and a jacket with a skirt, and a blue robe and hands, from which came some kind of familiar smell of oil paints from childhood.”

Through the efforts of Tatyana Borisovna, in 1965, an exhibition of Zinaida Serebryakova was organized in the Soviet Union - more than a hundred works by the artist created in exile. The exhibition was an unprecedented success, and it was repeated in Kyiv and Leningrad.

Z. E. Serebryakova (in the center) in a workshop on Campan-Premier Street with children and S. K. Artsybushev. 1960

She died on September 19, 1967, after suffering a stroke. She was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois: on the day of the funeral it was pouring rain, mourning the great Russian artist, who had crumbled like a house of cards, far from her homeland...

A young woman lived in the deep wilderness of the countryside, in a squalid farm environment, and she had no other joy, no other aesthetic pleasure on the winter days that separated her from the whole world, like seeing her young, cheerful face in the mirror, like seeing her bare hands playing with a comb. and with a mane of hair...

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois

Girl with a Candle, Self-Portrait, 1911 (detail)

Self-portrait, 1900. State Russian Museum

Self-portrait, 1903

Self-portrait, 1903

Self-portrait, 1906. State Russian Museum

Expecting my first child. Self-portrait, 1906

Self-portrait, 1907
Nizhny Tagil Municipal Museum of Fine Arts

Self-portrait with an apple

Let's take a look at Serebryakova's self-portraits, which, like a mirror, reflect the artist's happy, sad and tragic fate. Self-portrait remained Zinaida Evgenievna’s favorite genre throughout her life, perhaps because it, being the most accessible model for herself, was the easiest to experiment with. She wrote a lot of them. A variety of colors: pencil, pastel, watercolor, tempera, oil. From the early ones, feminine-romantic and playfully funny, a charming, flirtatious and sly woman looks at us, from others - the charming Zinok with an eternal bow and bangs - a happy daughter, wife and mother of four children; from the later, sad, melancholic and thoughtful ones - a fragile, sickly, tired of constant work and worries, a widow who became the only breadwinner for a family of six and was forced to use her gift to earn money for her food and existence.

Self-portrait in a black dress with a white collar, 1907

Self-portrait in a lilac blouse, 1907

Behind the toilet. Self-portrait, 1909 Tretyakov Gallery

This work was a stunning success at the VII exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists in St. Petersburg in 1910. Such freshness, sincerity and joy of youth emanated from the painting depicting a big-eyed and large-mouthed girl in the mirror, illuminated by the clear and even morning winter light, that no one was left in doubt: a new master had appeared in Russia. The Tretyakov Gallery bought the painting at the exhibition. Behind the toilet was and remains one of the best Russian self-portraits.

Study of a Girl (Self-Portrait), 1909. Private collection, Moscow

Self-portrait with a mirror, 1910. State Museum-Reserve Peterhof

Self-portraits, 1910s. Collection of A. Bogomolov and private collection

Self-portrait, 1911. Tula Art Museum

Pierrot (Self-Portrait in Pierrot Costume), 1911. Odessa Art Museum

Self-portrait, 1911

Self-portrait with a scarf, 1911
Museum of Personal Collections of the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. Pushkin

Girl with a candle. Self-portrait, 1911. State Russian Museum

Self-portrait with a scarf, 1911

Self-portrait, 1913

Triple portrait, 1914

Self-portrait, 1914. Tretyakov Gallery

Triple portrait, sketch, 1914. Private collection

Self-portrait, 1916

Self-portrait, 1910s

Self-portrait, 1910s. Vologda Regional Art Gallery

Frightened, 1917. Vologda Regional Art Gallery

Tata and Katya (At the mirror), 1917

Self-portrait, second half of the 1910s. Private collection

Self-portrait, 1920

Self-portrait, 1920

Self-portrait at work, 1921. Collection of the Loitsansky family

Self-portrait, 1920s
Chuvash Art Museum and Yekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts

Self-portrait, 1920-1921

Self-portrait in red, 1921. Private collection

Self-portrait, 1921. National Gallery of Armenia

Self-portrait with daughters, 1921
Rybinsk State Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-Reserve, Yaroslavl Region

Self-portrait, 1921. Private collection

Self-portrait in a white blouse, 1922. timing belt

Self-portrait, 1922. State Museum-Reserve Peterhof

Self-portrait with a brush, 1924. Kyiv Museum of Russian Art

Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova was one of the first female artists and it is not surprising that it was her self-portrait that became the most famous painting. Canvas “Behind the toilet. Self-portrait" was written by a twenty-five-year-old girl in 1909. It was exhibited at the exhibition and brought great fame to the artist. Later this painting was acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery.

The artist depicted herself at the morning toilet. Her face is very fresh and joyful. The eyes are bright, expressive, sparkling. She is combing her beautiful, thick hair. The lips are curved in a gentle smile. There is a blush on the cheeks. Her beautiful half-twist movement shows off her thin waist very gracefully. He had not yet taken off his loose nightgown, which had fallen off one shoulder, exposing it completely. Her whole figure is light and cheerful. There is no sadness, grief or thoughtfulness. The girl in the portrait is very happy about the new day. She is ready to meet new impressions and emotions with an open soul.

In the background, in subtle colors, you can see a wash area, a wooden door and part of the bed. In front of the girl there is a dressing table, on which there are jewelry of various colors and shades. There is a bottle of perfume, and on the right hand of the girl there are two candles in beautiful candlesticks. Compared to the background of the artist herself, all these details are inconspicuous and completely inconspicuous. Only after admiring the girl herself enough can you consider all the nuances. The whole atmosphere in the room is somehow fantastic, sparkling with light and joy.

Canvas by Serebryakova Z.E. “Behind the toilet. Self-Portrait,” like all her paintings, is distinguished by her high artistic skill. This fact itself speaks of the great talent and spirituality of the artist.

In the spring-summer season, the Tretyakov Gallery dedicated a large project to Zinaida Serebryakova. A retrospective exhibition of one of Russia's first professional artists occupies two floors of the gallery's Engineering Building. This exception, when the entire exhibition space of the building is given to one master, has so far been made only for the Marc Chagall retrospective. The exhibition of works by Zinaida Serebryakova can be viewed until July 30. And in our section we talk about the artist’s painting “Self-Portrait. Behind the toilet." Thanks to this work, Serebryakova was talked about as an accomplished master, and the Tretyakov Gallery acquired the painting.

Zinaida Serebryakova painted the self-portrait “Behind the Toilet” in 1909 in her native village of Neskuchnoye (now part of the Kharkov region). By this time, the 25-year-old artist was married to her cousin Boris Serebryakov, and they had two sons. Zinaida wrote about the history of the painting, that the winter turned out to be snowy, her husband was in Northern Siberia for work and was supposed to return for Christmas: “In the fall, I decided to stay with the children for a few more months in Neskuchny, but on a farm where the house was small, and he it could be heated in winter more easily than the large, high rooms in Neskuchny. Winter came early this year - everything was covered with snow: our garden, the fields around; there are snowdrifts everywhere; You can’t go out, but the house on the farm is warm and cozy. I started drawing myself in the mirror and had fun drawing all sorts of little things on the “toilet.”

The painting “Behind the Toilet” was highly praised by critics and eminent artists

Self-portrait with simplicity and at the same time some mystery in the interpretation of the image. The artist did not depict a real person, but his reflection in the mirror. So that viewers have no doubts about this, in the foreground on the left is depicted the only object in the picture that “exists” in our world - a candlestick with a candle, painted with impasto strokes, emphasizing its materiality. Many artists use a mirror as an auxiliary tool when working on self-portraits, but Serebryakova was obviously interested in the motif of reflection itself.

The work was done in light, warm colors, conveying a sunny, frosty morning. The dark frame of the mirror marks the boundaries of the composition and emphasizes the light saturation of the image. Glass bottles of perfume, beads on stiletto heels, a candlestick, arranged in a picturesque order on the dressing table, play and shimmer like jewels in the rays of the sun. The warm tones of the figure and objects in the foreground contrast with the cool bluish-green background, creating a sense of spatial depth. Serebryakova, like the old masters, carefully models the form, paints in multi-layers, using various gradations of color and subtle light-and-shadow transitions. Light, major colors make the “reflected” world bright and airy. Achieving tangible materiality in the depiction of the mysterious world that “exists” on the other side of the mirror, the artist seems to be striving to penetrate the deeply hidden secret of human nature and life itself. Serebryakova creates an ideal image of a harmoniously perfect person, but this is only a dream, a fleeting “reality” of reflection.

Painting “Self-portrait. Behind the Toilet” was presented in St. Petersburg at the VII exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists in mid-February 1910. The work was well received by both critics and Serebryakova's more senior colleagues. The artist Valentin Serov said about the self-portrait that it is “a very sweet and fresh thing.” The Tretyakov Gallery purchased the painting directly from the exhibition, where “Self-Portrait. Behind the toilet" (oil on canvas, 75x65 cm) is still stored today. By the way, Serebryakova’s uncle, artist Alexander Benois, recommended setting the price for this work at 500 rubles. Art historians classify the self-portrait “At the Toilet” as one of the main works of Zinaida Serebryakova: “Bathhouse”, “Harvest” and “Whitening the Canvas”.

7 important facts about Zinaida Serebryakova

1. Zinaida Serebryakova was born on December 10, 1884 in the village of Neskuchnoye, Kursk province (now Kharkov region). Her family said: “All our children are born with a pencil in their hand.” The artist grew up in an atmosphere of art from an early age. Her grandfather Nikolai Benois was a famous architect, her father Eugene Lanceray was a sculptor, her mother Catherine Benois was a graphic artist, and her uncle Alexander Benois was a famous artist. Serebryakova's brothers Nikolai and Evgeniy Lanceray also connected themselves with fine art. Zinaida Serebryakova's eldest son became an architect, another son and two daughters became artists.

Zinaida Serebryakova “Portrait of E. N. Lanceray, the artist’s mother,” 1912

2. Scenes of simple village life are another favorite theme of Zinaida Serebryakova, in addition to portraits. Not boring, surrounded by meadows, forests, scenes of peasant life and closeness to ordinary people inspired the artist. Often peasants, as, for example, in the painting “Whitening the Canvas,” resemble monumental figures.

“Whitening the Canvas”, 1917

3. After the revolution, Zinaida Serebryakova's life changed dramatically. She had to leave Neskuchny, the family estate was looted and burned. In 1919, her husband Boris died of typhus in the artist’s arms. Zinaida never married again.

“Portrait of B. A. Serebryakov”, 1900s

Serebryakova was left alone with four children and an elderly mother. Hunger begins, Zinaida has to earn money and support her family alone, with whom she moved to Petrograd. However, she did not give up painting. There were few customers; they preferred to give products rather than money for work. Serebryakova wrote: “Cutlets made from potato peels were a delicacy for lunch.”

Serebryakova wrote “House of Cards” after the death of her husband in 1919

4. One of the significant series in Serebryakova’s work is dedicated to ballet. In Petrograd, her eldest daughter Tatyana entered the ballet school. From 1920 to 1924 Serebryakova often visited the backstage of the Mariinsky Theater. Art and the holiday atmosphere appear again in her life. The artist creates works in which her ballerinas look like weightless snowflakes.

“Ballet restroom. Snowflakes", 1923

5. In 1924, at the age of 40, Zinaida Serebryakova left for Paris to earn money; she was commissioned to create a decorative panel. The artist assumed that she would leave for several months, but she never returned to her homeland. After this order, Zinaida had difficulty finding a job. French society admired Art Deco, but Serebryakova’s works were not highly regarded. She sent everything she managed to earn to her children. Relations between the USSR and Western countries became increasingly closed. With the assistance of the Red Cross, Serebryakova managed to get her son Sasha and daughter Katya to come to her. Alexander began to take orders and paint the interiors of rich houses, Katya took charge of everyday life. The daughter became the artist’s main model at that time. Ekaterina devoted herself to her mother’s talent and it was thanks to her work that many of Serebryakova’s works returned to Russia.

"Port Collioure", 1930

6. While living in France, Zinaida Serebryakova traveled to neighboring countries and fulfilled orders. The artist received the most inspiration from a trip to Morocco, where she visited twice in 1928 and 1932. The artist, despite all the difficulties and blows of fate, remained true to herself; in her works she created a world of beauty and celebration. Serebryakova wrote: “How terrible it is that contemporaries almost never understand that real art cannot be “fashionable” or “unfashionable,” and demand from artists constant “renewal,” but, in my opinion, the artist must remain himself!” .

"Sunlit", 1928

7. Separation from two other children depressed Serebryakova. During the Second World War, correspondence with them stopped altogether. The meeting with Tatyana took place only 36 years later in 1960 during the Khrushchev Thaw. She was able to come to France and finally see her mother. And shortly before the artist’s death, Evgeniy was able to meet his mother. Five years later, the first exhibition of Serebryakova’s works took place in Russia. But the artist was unable to attend due to health reasons. Zinaida Serebryakova died in 1967 at the age of 82. She was buried in the cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois.

"Self-Portrait", 1956

The material uses data from the book “Zinaida Serebryakova” by E. V. Efremova.

Zinaida Serebryakova Rusakova Alla Alexandrovna

“Self-portrait. Behind the toilet"

“Self-portrait. Behind the toilet"

Landscape has forever remained one of Serebryakova’s favorite genres, which largely reveals her worldview. But the truly great success and recognition of art lovers, especially the circle of the “World of Art” led by Alexander Nikolaevich Benois, brought her portrait work of the late 1900s - early 1910s. As already mentioned, during these years Serebryakova enthusiastically worked on portraits of peasants and peasant children, and also painted her husband more than once. However, these portrait works turned out to be only the predecessors of the work that immediately put her in the first rank of Russian painters of these years - the self-portrait “At the Toilet”, which characterizes the era of its creation with the same accuracy as Serov’s “Girl Illuminated by the Sun” - the second half of the eighties of the XIX century centuries, and “Bathing the Red Horse” by Petrov-Vodkin - the beginning of the 1910s.

This self-portrait still evokes the same admiration among viewers as it did during its first public appearance at the VII exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists. More than half a century later, Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova wrote to art critic V.P. Lapshin about the circumstances of its creation: “In this year (1909. - A.R.) I decided to stay longer on our estate and not leave for St. Petersburg - as usual, in September. My husband Boris Anatolyevich was “on research” in Northern Siberia - he promised to come to the “village” for Christmas and return together with two children (sons Zhenya and Shura. - A.R.) to St. Petersburg. Winter came early and snowy - our entire garden, fields, and roads were covered with snow, and it was impossible to get “models” from the peasants. The theme of “self-portrait” is the most common among all artists... I think that I didn’t paint “Behind the Toilet” for long, since in my youth I painted very quickly.” We learn other details from her letter sent at the same time to A.N. Savinov: “I decided to stay... on a “farm” - on my husband’s estate (near Neskuchny), where the house was small and could be heated in winter more easily than large high rooms of Neskuchny.<…>I started drawing myself in the mirror and had fun drawing all sorts of little things on the “toilet.” This is how Zinaida Evgenievna ingenuously and modestly talks about the birth of one of her most significant and “conceptual” works.

Typically, painters, when working on a self-portrait, especially one not devoid of elements of the setting, depict themselves in front of an easel, with a palette and brushes in their hands. This will happen to Serebryakova in the post-revolutionary “Petrograd” and “Parisian” times, when the only content of her lonely and difficult life will be painting and painting again. Here something more appears before the viewer than an ordinary self-portrait; this is a painting telling about a happy youth, which could be called “Winter Morning”, which was emphasized with poetic insight by Efim Dorosh, who, perhaps, best of all those who wrote about it, conveyed - half a century later - its charm: “Whenever I happen to stand in front of a painting , admiring the big-eyed and big-mouthed girl in the mirror, illuminated by the clear and even morning winter light reflected from the fallen snow, the thought invariably came to mind, as one day, waking up early...

Tatiana saw through the window

In the morning the yard turned white,

Curtains, roofs and fences,

There are light patterns on the glass,

Trees in winter silver,

Forty merry ones in the yard

And softly carpeted mountains

Winters are a brilliant carpet,

Everything is bright, everything is white all around.”

Dorosh admits: “At the same time, I was thinking not so much about Tatyana Larina, but about Pushkin, who was the first to discover rural Russia - the poetry of its everyday existence... The girl from the Self-Portrait, like Pushkin, freshly and clearly sees the rural world lying outside the windows of her bright room, little changed over the eight decades that separate “Eugene Onegin” from this picture.” Of course, the comparison of this complete freshness, sincere picture with the poetics of the “divine” Pushkin - Serebryakova’s greatest literary love from her youth to old age - is deeply just and subtly felt; a juxtaposition that must have pleased her deeply.

E. Dorosh, of course, is right that the “village world” has changed relatively little in appearance from Pushkin’s times to the beginning of the 20th century. But during this time, social circumstances, on the one hand, and the substantive and stylistic aspects of painting, on the other, changed decisively. And the young artist showed herself in her first significant work as a purely modern painter, although far from innovative leftist movements, but who perfectly accepted and in her own way implemented in her own work the achievements of Russian and Western painting of the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

Doroshev's indirect comparison of Serebryakova in the self-portrait with Pushkin's Tatyana is, of course, not accidental: the image is so immediately charming, it exudes so much purity and charm of youth - from the huge elongated eyes, fresh, slightly smiling mouth, slightly high-cheekbones, tapering to the chin face, thick dark hair, graceful and very natural movement of bare arms, white bodice. The background is in extraordinary harmony with the figure of the young woman in the foreground - the white wall of a more than modest room, the basin and jug of the washbasin. Only, probably, in this self-portrait the happiness of youth and the immediate joy of life are felt much more than in the state of mind and appearance of Pushkin’s Tatyana. And perhaps his most important and most attractive feature for the viewer is “simple beauty”, which “is in everything.” According to D.V. Sarabyanov, in this self-portrait painting “... the natural beauty of life, existing as if by itself, becomes a kind of aesthetic criterion, determining the position of the artist, her view of both herself and everything around her.”

Serebryakova writes - although it sounds paradoxical at first - not herself, but her reflection in the mirror. This “existence as a reflection” serves her (perhaps completely subconsciously) as a kind of “protection”, a boundary between herself and the audience, the existence of which is especially characteristic of the chaste and modest Serebryakova - a person and a painter. In addition, the image is already limited by a kind of frame - the frame of the mirror painted by her, which, of course, immediately gives the portrait an element of picturesqueness. A simple still life reflected in a mirror (“I had fun depicting every little thing on the “toilet””) was painted with sincere passion: a bottle of perfume, pins, handkerchiefs, beads and a candle in a candlestick - by the way, the only object depicted twice, “in nature” and in reflection. This sweet and naive still life will turn out to be the predecessor of many excellent still lifes of the artist, created in the mature period of her work.

The self-portrait is not only unusual, even unexpected, but also very modern, although written, it would seem, in Serebryakova’s usual purely realistic manner. Looking at it, you clearly feel that the artist sensitively perceived and processed - most likely, purely intuitively - impressions not only from classical, but also from contemporary painting, both Western and Russian, and especially the portraiture of Valentin Serov, to whom she treated with genuine respect. One can even rightfully say that “Behind the Toilet” is one of the pinnacles of Russian Art Nouveau or, as it was often called in those years, the New Style, Art Nouveau in French version or Yugendstil in German. (It is necessary to distinguish between the terms “modern” and “modernism”; the latter is usually applied to the innovative, “leftist” art of the 20th century, to the art of the avant-garde, and embraces many of its movements.)

Art Nouveau, a style that came to Russia from Western Europe in the early nineties and flourished, especially in architecture and applied art, by the mid-1900s, left its mark on the work of such major Russian painters as M. Vrubel, V. Serov, K. Korovin, M. Nesterov, early V. Kandinsky, and among the “World of Art” artists are L. Bakst, K. Somov, A. Benois. Moreover, they themselves became the creators of modernity in Russia in an era that in Germany is called Jahrhundertwende- “turn of centuries”, which more accurately defines the movement and nature of time than the French Fin de siècle(“end of the century”) This was the first style of the New Age, which, as D. Sarabyanov aptly put it, abandoned direct dialogue with nature. Art Nouveau elevated the conventionality, sharpness and paradoxical nature of the image to a principle; included in his iconography myth, fairy tale, dream, themes of light and darkness, good and evil, sublime love and lust; strived for a synthesis of the arts, to replace easel paintings with panels and paintings, and to make the widest use of ornament.

All this, at first glance, has little to do with Serebryakova’s painting, which is clear and vitally truthful at its core. However, it is the self-portrait “Behind the Toilet” that irrefutably and convincingly proves that in Art Nouveau, which decisively captured part of Russian painting in these years (already, however, being pushed back by the time the self-portrait was painted by new, more “revolutionary” quests and trends), its characteristic content and stylistic features are often organically combined “with realism and features of impressionism.” In Serebryakova’s work - and especially in the self-portrait “Behind the Toilet” - we encounter precisely the fusion of a realistic view of the world (and a fundamentally realistic one, which is characteristic of her entire worldview) with undoubted and very significant and even typical features of modernist works.

It is not for nothing that E. E. Lanseray, in a letter to K. A. Somov, comparing this work with his sister’s earlier works, gives it a very precise definition: “The thing is incomparably more significant - half-painting, half-self-portrait, in oil, almost in life: lady deshabillee (in home, morning dress, half dressed, fr. - A.R.) combs his hair, the author sees himself in the mirror, so that some of the objects in the foreground are doubled (candles). Everything is very simple, everything is an exact copy of nature, but at the same time Shura (Alexander Benois. - A.R.) finds that it has “style”” (meaning, undoubtedly, the stylistic features of modernity). This “mirroring”, the reflection of the depicted, the double - although in this case unintentional, subconscious - detachment from the viewer, the presence of the model and the objective world surrounding her, as D. Sarabyanov puts it, “on the verge of this-worldly and other-worldly existence” is one of the favorite techniques modern Even more indicative is the rhythmic nature of the picture’s solution and the “stagnation” of action in time, characteristic of modernism. And at the same time, the living - and life-giving - spontaneity of vision decisively distinguishes “Behind the Toilet” from such works, for example, as “Dinner” by L. Bakst and his portrait of Zinaida Gippius, where the stylistic searches and delights that make these certainly wonderful works, typical examples of pure, “unalloyed” Art Nouveau. Serebryakova, as already mentioned, embodied in this self-portrait some features of the style completely intuitively, being an extremely sensitive artistic person. Art Nouveau - and this is one of its features - widely granted the artist “the right to various stylizations”, without forcing him to change his organically inherent view of the world; this gave Serebryakova the opportunity to freely (in all likelihood, completely unconsciously, but all the more naturally) to use elements of style that enriched her work, making it interesting and attractive.

The self-portrait “Behind the Toilet,” sent by Serebryakova to St. Petersburg at the insistence of her brother Evgeniy, received universal recognition at the VII exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists, where it was exhibited along with thirteen other works by Serebryakova created in 1906–1909. This was the artist’s second performance “in public.” A month earlier, she exhibited two early works - “Self-Portrait” of 1905 and a slightly later “Portrait of a Nanny” - at an exhibition of contemporary Russian female portraits organized by S. K. Makovsky in the editorial office of the Apollo magazine. They were very kindly noted in the press - in the catalog article by G. K. Lukomsky and in the “Artistic Letter” of A. N. Benois. But, in fact, it was the self-portrait “Behind the Toilet” that became a genuine discovery of a new talent, noted not only by Benoit’s brilliant article, but also by a number of other reviews. As usual, the reserved and always impeccably objective V. A. Serov spoke about this work: “A self-portrait at the mirror is a very sweet, fresh thing,” but he treated the rest of the artist’s paintings more strictly. Benoit, certainly highlighting the self-portrait of his niece, noted: “Other works by Serebryakova (portraits of peasants were exhibited, including “Shepherd” and “Beggar”, a portrait of a student, landscapes “Spring”, “Winter Day”, “Greenery.” - A.R.) is a further commentary on her art. All of them amaze with their vitality, simplicity and innate craftsmanship.”

Three works by Serebryakova - the self-portrait “Behind the Toilet”, “Greenery” and “Youth” (portrait of Maria Zhigulina) - were purchased from the exhibition by the Tretyakov Gallery.

Returning to Benoit’s review, I would like to emphasize two of his points here. The words about Serebryakova’s “innate skill” are deeply true - after all, she was essentially a self-taught person who, thanks to talent coupled with hard work, became a magnificent and original painter, always following her own path. It is equally important that Benoit notes among the main advantages of her works their mood: “They are all cheerful, cheerful and young.” This quality of Serebryakova’s paintings - if not “cheerfulness”, then, in any case, cheerfulness - was quite natural at that time, and in subsequent periods of her very difficult life it always remained unchanged, sometimes coming into sharp contradiction with her everyday perception of the world, and even with a closed, self-absorbed character.

Having somewhat departed in our narrative from its main theme - the life and work of Zinaida Serebryakova - let us recall that the VII exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists was the last in which, together with the Moscow founders of the Union, most of them “younger Wanderers”, former members of the “World of Art” participated ", liquidated in 1904. The pretext for the long-overdue rift between the “Muscovites” and the “St. Petersburgers” (with the exception of V. Serov, who was closely associated with the main group of “MirIskusniks”) was A. Benois’ critical statements addressed to some “Muscovites”. In December 1910, an exhibition of the recreated, but very different from the previous, “World of Art” opened in St. Petersburg; from then on, Serebryakova’s participation in exhibitions organized by him became “self-evident.”