"This is a man's, man's world" - James Brown once sang, saying that the world is held by men. The history of painting is an indirect confirmation of this: try to close your eyes and name at least ten women artists of world renown. The classical representation of a woman in painting has always been unanimous: it is a muse, a model, a girlfriend of a male artist, whose image inspired and stood at the center of his work. Among the first female artists were brave women, ready to challenge society: they had to not only resist the male creative diaspora, but also establish themselves as an artist of the same high level.
One of these women was Zinaida Serebryakova: she led a number of the first women painters who entered the history of Russian painting. Despite her image of a fragile, feminine and young beauty, Serebryakova's fate was difficult, full of hardships and difficulties, and her work during her lifetime did not receive universal recognition.
Early years
Zinaida Serebryakova was born in St. Petersburg. The future artist began to draw already from early age. Her whole family came from a creative dynasty: father Eugene Lansere was famous sculptor, grandfather Nikolai Benois was a famous architect, and mother Ekaterina Lansere was engaged in graphic pattern. Parents supported the children's creative endeavors in every possible way - from an early age, little Zina attends exhibitions in the Hermitage, goes to theaters for ballets, studies academic drawing and very enthusiastically reads large and rare books on art from the home library.
In 1886, misfortune befell the house - the girl's father, Eugene Lansere, died, and the family was forced to return to St. Petersburg. There Serebryakova graduated from the gymnasium and entered the art workshop, where Osip Braz and Ilya Repin became her mentors. Like the rest of the students, she went to the Hermitage and made copies from the canvases of the old masters. The girl continued to practice and, staying in Italy in 1902-1903, made sketches and sketches. Subsequently, this classical school” of painting will also be manifested in the manner of the artist: her nude models refer us to the best examples of the Renaissance.
"Young peasant woman in the kitchen" 1900s | "Portrait of M.E. Lansere (the artist's sister)" 1901
In 1905, two years after returning from Italy, the girl married her cousin, Boris Serebryakov, with whose name she would later go down in the history of Russian painting. After the wedding, the young family left for France, where the artist attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, making many sketches and drawings en plein air. A year later, the couple returned to St. Petersburg, to the Neskuchnoye estate, where Serebryakova worked tirelessly: sketches, sketches, domestic scenes. It was here that she would later form as an artist, creating the most magnificent and notable works, which after her death will receive worldwide recognition.
"Terrace" 1910s
"Apples on branches" 1910s
"Cabbage. The village of Neskuchnoye" 1909
"In the meadow. Boring» 1910s
Beauty Russia
Zinaida Serebryakova can rightly be considered a truly Russian artist: her canvases reflect an immeasurable love for the motherland. Her works are windows into the boundless world of Russian nature, which allow us to admire its enchanting beauty, fields strewn with flowers and gold. Simple and everyday scenes - rural, street, domestic - these are the main plots of the artist, from which she drew her inspiration. She had a special love for the peasant way of life: her series of “peasant” canvases, written from 1914 to 1917, tells about life in the Russian village, about the everyday life of hardworking peasants, about the charming simplicity of their life. The titles of the works are uncomplicated and open, like their characters - these are "Peasants", "Harvest", "Sleeping Peasant Woman".
"Peasants" 1914
"Harvest" 1915
"Sleeping Peasant Woman" 1917
Particularly significant was the painting "Whitening of the Canvas" (1917), where Serebryakova proved herself not only as a master of composition, but also as a talented muralist. The work was created as part of an epic cycle dedicated to peasant life, which also included the written “Harvest” and the planned “Sheep Shearing”. Along with female characters in the paintings of the artist there is always one more female image- the image of the beautiful Russia, its nature, its folk flavor.
"Whitening of the canvas" 1917
Zinaida Serebryakova gave the world a real Russian beauty - feminine, girlishly mischievous, tender, with a French flair in her eyes and a mysterious half-smile in the style of Rokotov. She painted the women of the most different professions and ages, including herself, breathing into all her images the invisible and alluring freshness of youth, that romance that she lacked during the difficult life path. In other words, she painted her desired life and herself in it. This was the famous self-portrait of Serebryakova "Behind the toilet", created in 1909: it reflects the state and mood of the artist, in which she would like to live. On her bright face there is a clear smile and the joy of realizing her life, beauty and youth, and the traditional depiction of painting objects is inferior to the depiction of attributes. female beauty- jewelry, perfume, charming boxes. Thus, Serebryakova seems to deliberately move away from the world of artists, as if declaring: I am first and foremost a woman - beautiful, young, eager to live. The picture of the young artist became her pass to the world of great masters: in 1910, after the exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists, the work was acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery, where the self-portrait is to this day. So the girl's talent for the first time gets its recognition.
"Behind the toilet. Self-portrait" 1908-1909
hard years
Serebryakova deliberately avoided modernism, remaining unshakably true to her style even in the hungry time of the revolution. Not wanting to make an instrument out of your creativity ideological struggle, she resisted with all her might the attempts of the authorities to impose futurism on her. Watching how art becomes a slave at the feet of power, Zinaida mournfully reflected in her diary: “Life now seems to me a meaningless fuss and a lie - now everyone’s brains are very clogged, and now there is nothing sacred in the world, everything is ruined, debunked, trampled in the dirt…” The shortage of paints forced her to create with improvised materials, and the exhibits of the archaeological museum in the Kharkov province became a field for creativity - while working there during this period, the artist continued to make graphic sketches. In 1916 Serebryakova became a member decoration Kazansky railway station, where she was attracted by A. Benois.
Panel sketches for the Kazansky railway station in Moscow, 1916
Life became unbearably difficult, money for food was sorely lacking. A new series of difficulties soon followed. In 1919, a terrible misfortune happened in Serebryakova's life: her beloved husband died of typhus. Zinaida is left alone with her mother and small children in her arms. Grief from loss exacerbates general mood society: the revolution takes people's bread, livelihood and all hope of life. That fresh, youthful feeling that was born when looking at Serebryakova’s canvases was replaced by pain and a breakdown: it crumbled like House of cards, fragile female happiness. It is this image that will give the name to one of the most famous paintings Serebryakova - here it is, the House of Cards, which is being built by her children, who were left without a father. Their eyes are lowered, their faces are in humble sadness, they are building a turret of cards that can crumble at any moment, as a person's life can end ... Today, the work is in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.
"House of Cards" 1919
Lack of funds and a burned-out estate forced Serebriakova in the 1920s. to return to St. Petersburg, to my grandfather's apartment. Here the little daughter of the artist Tatyana begins to study ballet, and my mother often visits the theater with her and constantly works: so, as a result of three years fruitful creativity, Serebryakova created a number of wonderful canvases - compositions and portraits - on a ballet theme.
"Ballet room. Snowflakes" 1923
"Girls-sylphs" 1924
"Portrait of A.D. Danilova in theatrical costume» 1922 | "Portrait of VK Ivanova dressed as a Spaniard" 1924 | "Portrait of E.N. Heidenreich in red" 1923
Departure to a foreign land
After the revolution in the country began again And gain popularity shows and vernissages, works Russian artists began to exhibit abroad. Serebryakova was no exception: in 1924, her paintings were appreciated by visitors to the exhibition of Russian visual arts in America. The works were a huge success and soon they were all sold out. This encouraged the artist: in the same year she decided to go to Paris and work there. However After some time Serebryakova understands that she deceived. Her next exhibition abroad took place only in 1927. There were always not enough orders, and the art that you liked local public, Serebryakova considered vulgar kitsch, idle bad taste. He didn't have that sincerity e go, Russian, the spirituality that she sang in her work. For the rest of her life, Zinaida wanted to return back - to her children, mother, to that life in St. Petersburg, with which it began creative way, but until the end of her days she remained "locked" in France: the war and the occupation of Paris made it impossible to return to Russia. The artist will describe her boundless nostalgia at the end of her life in her diary: “Nothing came out of my life here, and I often think that I did an irreparable thing, breaking away from the soil ...”. Serebryakova died in Paris at the age of 82, never returning to her homeland. Her nostalgia for everything Russian is still alive in her amazing works, which have become messengers of the image of Beauty-Russia around the world.
Artist Serebryakova Zinaida Evgenievna, short biography and creativity. (Her maiden name Lansere) was born in 1884, in the family of a famous sculptor, her mother came from the famous Benois dynasty. After the death of his father, the family subsequently lived in St. Petersburg with Nikolai Leontievich Benois or in the Neskuchny estate. The family always talked a lot about art and Zinochka's intention to become an artist, of course, did not surprise anyone.
Zinaida studied drawing very little. At the age of 17, she took lessons from Ilya Repin, and then from Osip Emmanuilovich Braz, and then for two years she traveled around Italy, studied the paintings of the great Renaissance painters, admired the beautiful creations of famous Italian architects, admired the magnificent landscapes. All this, of course, greatly influenced the work of the future artist.
Returning to her homeland, the girl married her cousin Boris Serebryakov.
Even in her youth, the artist always expressed her love for Russia in her sketches. Her painting "The Garden in Bloom" and some others clearly speak of the charm of Russian vast expanses, meadow flowers, fields ...
The paintings that appeared in the expositions of the exhibitions of 1909 - 1910 express a peculiar and unique style. The greatest delight among the audience was caused by the self-portrait “Behind the toilet”. A woman living in a small village, one of the short winter evenings, looking in the mirror, smiles at his reflection, as if playing with a comb. In this work of the young artist, like herself, everything breathes freshness. There is no modernism; a corner of the room, as if illuminated by youth, appears before the viewer in all its charm and joy.
The greatest peak of the artist's work falls on the pre-revolutionary years. These are pictures of peasants and beautiful Russian landscapes and also everyday genres for example, picture At breakfast , ballerinas in the dressing room, One of the significant
works in these years is the painting "Whitening of the Canvas", written in 1916, where Serebryakova acts as a muralist. The figures of village women in the meadow near the river look majestic, because of the image of the low horizon. In the early morning they spread the freshly woven canvases and leave them for the day under the bright rays of the sun.
The composition is built in red, green and brown tones, which gives the small canvas the properties of a monumental and decorative canvas. This is a kind of hymn to the hard work of the peasants. The figures are made in different color and rhythmic keys, which creates a single plastic melody, closed within the composition. All this is a single majestic chord that glorifies the beauty and strength of the Russian woman. Peasant women are depicted on the banks of a small river, from which pre-morning fog rises. Reddish rays of the sun give a special charm female faces. "Whitening of the Canvas" is reminiscent of ancient frescoes. The artist interprets this work as a ritual act, showing the beauty of people and the world, using the picturesque and linear rhythm of the picture. Unfortunately, this is the last big work of Zinaida Serebryakova.
In the same year, Benois was ordered to decorate the Kazansky railway station with paintings and he invited his niece to work. The artist decides to create in her own way oriental theme. Represent India, Japan, Turkey and Siam as beautiful women East.
In the prime of her work, the artist suffers great grief. ill with typhus, a short time from this terrible disease the husband burns down, and Serebriakova's mother and four children remain in her arms. In 1920, the whole family moved to Petrograd. Daughter Tanya enters ballet and Serebryakova develops for several years theatrical theme depicting ballerinas. But work does not bring true satisfaction. The family is in dire need of literally everything. The stocks that were in the estate were completely looted. There are no colors, and the artist writes her "House of Cards" with charcoal and pencil, in which she depicts her children. Serebryakova categorically refuses to master the style of futurism and finds a job in the archaeological museum of Kharkov, making sketches of exhibits with a pencil
Art lovers buy her paintings almost for free, for food or old things. Due to the heavy financial position Zinaida Evgenievna left for Paris in 1924, where she was invited to work on decorative painting. Having finished the work, she is going to return, but due to some objective circumstances she will remain in Paris forever.
Serebryakova travels to African countries. Exotic landscapes surprise her, she paints the Atlas Mountains, portraits of African women, creates a cycle of studies about the fishermen of Brittany.
Since 1947, Serebryakova has become a citizen of France. More than forty long years abroad, far from Russia, do not bring her creative satisfaction; she often experiences homesickness. Even her sketches silently say that Serebryakova remained true to the theme of the Russian people and realism. During her numerous travels, the artist also painted pictures, the main characters of which were peasants, fishermen, and people from the people.
In 1966 in the capital of the USSR in Moscow and some major cities exhibitions of Serebryakova's works were opened, many of the paintings were acquired by Russian museums.
The beautiful Russian artist Zinaida Serebryakova died not at home, in Paris in 1967. old age 82 years old.
Biography of Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova
(1884-1967)
Zinaida Serebryakova was born on November 28, 1884 in family estate"Neskuchnoe", near Kharkov. Her father was a famous sculptor. Mother came from the Benois family, and in her youth she was a graphic artist. Her brothers were no less talented, the younger was an architect, and the older master monumental painting and charts.
His artistic development Zinaida is primarily obliged to her uncle Alexandru Benois- mother's brother and older brother.
The artist spent her childhood and youth in St. Petersburg in the house of her grandfather, the architect N. L. Benois, and in the Neskuchny estate. Zinaida's attention was always attracted by the work of young peasant girls in the field. Subsequently, this is reflected more than once in her work.
In 1886, after the death of his father, the family moved from the estate to St. Petersburg. All family members were busy with creative activities, Zina also painted with enthusiasm.
In 1900 Zinaida graduated women's gymnasium and entered art school, founded by Princess M. K. Tenisheva.
In 1902-1903, during a trip to Italy, she created many sketches and studies.
In 1905 she marries Boris Anatolyevich Serebryakov, her cousin. After the wedding, the young went to Paris. Here Zinaida attends the Academy de la Grande Chaumière, works hard, draws from nature.
A year later, the young return home. In Neskuchny, Zinaida works hard - she creates sketches, portraits and landscapes. In the very first works of the artist, it is already possible to discern her own style, to determine the circle of her interests. In 1910, Zinaida Serebryakova was waiting for real success.
In 1910, at the 7th exhibition of Russian artists in Moscow, the Tretyakov Gallery acquired a self-portrait "Behind the Toilet" and gouache "Green in Autumn". Her landscapes are magnificent - pure, bright tones of colors, perfection of technique, unprecedented beauty nature.
The flowering of the artist's work occurs in 1914-1917. Zinaida Serebryakova created a series of paintings dedicated to the Russian village, peasant labor and Russian nature - "Peasants", "Sleeping Peasant Woman".
In the painting "Whitening of the Canvas", Serebryakova's bright talent as a muralist was revealed.
In 1916, A. N. Benois was entrusted with painting the Kazansky railway station in Moscow, he also attracted Zinaida to work. The artist took up the theme of the countries of the East: India, Japan, Türkiye. She allegorically represented these countries in the form beautiful women. At the same time, she began work on compositions on the themes ancient myths. Self-portraits occupy a special role in the work of Zinaida Serebryakova.
During civil war, Zinaida's husband was on a survey in Siberia, and she and her children were in Neskuchny. It seemed impossible to move to Petrograd, and Zinaida went to Kharkov, where she found work in the Archaeological Museum. Her family estate in "Neskuchny" burned down, all her works perished. Boris later died. Circumstances force the artist to leave Russia. She goes to France. All these years the artist lived in constant thoughts about her husband. She painted four portraits of her husband, which are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Novosibirsk Art Gallery.
In the 1920s, Zinaida Serebryakova returned with her children to Petrograd, in former apartment Benoit. Zinaida's daughter Tatyana began to study ballet. Zinaida, together with her daughter, visit the Mariinsky Theater, they also go backstage. In the theater, Zinaida constantly painted. In 1922 she created a portrait of D. Balanchine dressed as Bacchus. Creative communication with ballerinas throughout three years reflected in an amazing series of ballet portraits and compositions.
family is going through Hard times. Serebryakova tried to paint paintings to order, but she did not succeed. She loved to work with nature.
In the first years after the revolution, a lively exhibition activity. In 1924 Serebryakova became an exhibitor of a large exhibition of Russian fine arts in America. All the paintings presented to her were sold. With the proceeds, she decides to go to Paris to arrange an exhibition and receive orders. She leaves in 1924.
The years spent in Paris did not bring her joy and creative satisfaction. She yearned for her homeland, sought to reflect her love for her in her paintings. Her first exhibition took place only in 1927. She sent the money she earned to her mother and children.
In 1961 in Paris she was visited by two Soviet artist- S. Gerasimov and D. Shmarinov. Later in 1965, they arrange an exhibition for her in Moscow.
In 1966, the last, large exhibition of Serebryakova's works took place in Leningrad and Kyiv.
In 1967, in Paris, at the age of 82, Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova died.
Z. E. Serebryakova grew up in an atmosphere of art. Her father, E. A. Lansere, was a sculptor, and she was brought up (after the death of her father in 1886) together with her brother, the future graphic artist E. E. Lansere, in the family of her grandfather (by mother), N. L. Benois, Petersburg architect.
She did not receive a systematic art education and owed her enviable professionalism primarily to the influence of the environment, and even more - to her own efforts and the most severe demands on herself.
She continuously worked on location, mainly in Neskuchny, a small estate near Kharkov, making sketches, landscapes and portraits, among which images of local peasants predominated.
Serebryakova first came out to the public in 1910, showing fourteen works at the 7th exhibition of the CPX, including a small painting "Behind the toilet" (1909), which was a self-portrait. There was so much spiritual freshness and clarity in this picture, it was executed so confidently and maturely that they immediately started talking about Serebryakova as an extraordinary phenomenon.
"Behind the toilet. Self-portrait»
1909.
Canvas on cardboard, oil 65 x 75
Moscow
In 1912, she joined the "World of Art" association, with many members of which she had friendly and family relations. In 1914, Serebryakova spent several months in Italy (the trip was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I), where she closely studied the art of the Renaissance. In the same year she created charming picture"Children", group portrait their children.
"At breakfast"
1914
Oil on canvas 107 x 88.5
State Tretyakov Gallery
"Girls at the piano"
1922.
"Katya with a still life"
1923.
"Self-portrait with daughters" 1921
Katya in blue at the Christmas tree
"Tata and Katya at the mirror"
But the main forces of the artist were given to plots from peasant life. The paintings "Bath" (1912, 1913) were a spectacle filled with harmony of the mental and physical, the charm of unfeigned cheerfulness.
"Bath"
1912
"Bath"
1913
Canvas, oil. 135 x 174 cm
"braiding"
"Bath."
1926
They were followed by the paintings "Peasants" (1914; a fragment of a large composition destroyed by the artist herself), "Harvest" (1915), two versions of "Whitening the Canvas" and "Sleeping Peasant Woman" (all 1917).
"Sleeping peasant woman"
"Nurse with child"
1912
"Harvest"
1915.
Canvas, oil. 142 x 177 cm
Odessa Art Museum 
"Peasants"
1914.
"Whitening the Canvas"
1917.
Canvas, oil. 141.8 x 173.6 cm
State Tretyakov Gallery 
"Shoeing Peasant Woman"
1915
These works are now perceived as a requiem for the best that distinguished the Russian pre-revolutionary village. Long-term observations of village life here were enriched by the influence poetry A. G. Venetsianova, whom Serebryakova loved very much, and the experience of great masters Italian Renaissance. The artist had an undoubted gift as a muralist, but life circumstances did not allow her to realize this gift.
Drawing on the art of antiquity and the Renaissance with their cult beautiful person, it seeks to display timeless aesthetic values. Following the tradition implies a clear drawing, accurate transmission of anatomy and plastics human body and Serebryakova handles it like a brilliant master. She managed to create a vital and at the same time romantic image of a young woman. Warm colors convey the fullness of the model's body, which stands out clearly against the background of cold shades of grass and sky. The woman seems gloriously glowing from within. Everything in the picture is set in motion: running clouds, grass bending under the wind, developing hair of a bather. We see and feel the author's striving for the ideal, for the beautiful, that inner closeness of Serebryakova to symbolist aesthetics, which is aimed not at denying reality, but at its most reliable image.
"Bather"
1911
Canvas, oil. 98 x 89 cm
State Russian Museum
The revolution invaded her life in a dramatic way. In March 1919, her husband died, and she was left a widow with four children, first living in Neskuchny, and when the estate was burned down, she moved to Kharkov, where she worked odd jobs. At the end of 1920, Serebryakova was offered a professorship at the former Academy of Arts, and she moved to Petrograd, but due to illness, she never started teaching. Then she worked briefly in the workshop visual aids. Finally, she managed to return to creativity - she painted portraits, most often of her loved ones.
"Portrait of B.A. Serebryakov"
Around 1905 
"Portrait of B.A. Serebryakov, the husband of the artist"
1908
"In the meadow. Boring»
1912.
Canvas, oil. 62.8 x 84.3 cm
Nizhny Novgorod Art Museum 
"Girl with a candle. Self-portrait»
1911
"Portrait of B.A. Serebryakov"
1913
"Portrait of E.E. Zelenkova, nee Lansere, sister of the artist"
1913
"Portrait of O.K. Lansere"
"Portrait of Olga Konstantinovna Lansere"
"Sleeping Katya"
"In the kitchen Portrait of Katya"
Among the images of children, two paintings are distinguished by their sadness. This is a symbolic canvas "House of Cards" and "Boys in sailor vests" through and through. In the year of their creation, tragic event- in April 1919, the husband of Zinaida Serebryakova, Boris Anatolyevich, died of typhus. Grief and the heavy need to raise 4 children alone and support her mother fell on the fragile shoulders of Zinaida Evgenievna, now she had to take care of the family alone. At the end of 1919 they would have to leave native home in Neskuchny due to the beginning of robberies and pogroms. Subsequently, the estate will be looted and burned. The painting "House of Cards" reflects the thoughts of the mother about the children, put by harsh circumstances on the brink of survival. An expression of confusion froze on the faces of the children, they are sad and concentrated, their eyes are directed at the house of cards crumbling in their hands. The game suddenly reminded me of tragic circumstances their lives, about easily destroyed unsteady happiness...
"House of cards"
1919
Canvas, oil. 65 x 75.5 cm
State Russian Museum 
"Naked"
1920
Canvas, oil. 76.5 x 101 cm
Donetsk Regional Art Museum
Passion for ballet prompted her to create several small paintings and portraits of ballerinas.
Despite difficult conditions life, she, as before, knows how to see beauty in her surroundings, love loved ones, admire her friends. In her works, Zinaida Evgenievna seeks to capture the external and inner beauty man, his dignity and nobility. During these years she created a series of works, dedicated to artists ballet. After Tatyana's daughter entered the Petrograd Choreographic School, Serebryakova had the opportunity to go backstage at the theater and make sketches. Her new sublime images will be connected with the theater... 
"Ballet dressing room. Snowflakes"
"Girls-sylphs (Ballet Chopiniana)" 1924
"Portrait of Valentina Konstantinovna Ivanova dressed as a Spaniard"
"Self-portrait dressed as Pierrot"
In 1924, Serebryakova left for Paris, intending to earn some money there and return to her homeland, but soon the return became impossible. Paris did not live up to expectations: she worked, still not sparing herself, but this did not bring prosperity and only allowed her to maintain life at the level of decent modesty, and what came out from under her brush was noticeably inferior to what was done in the pre-revolutionary years. The reason was not only in everyday difficulties, but mainly in the fact that she had lost her native soil.
"Helene de Roy Princess Jean de Merode"
"Princess Irina Yusupova"
"Portrait of a lady with a dog. I.Velan»
1926
At the end of her life, fate gave her several joyful moments. She met with her eldest son Eugene and eldest daughter Tatyana: in the 1960s, their arrival in Paris became possible. And in 1965, the Union of Artists of the USSR organized her large exhibition in Moscow, Kyiv and Leningrad. The exhibition also featured paintings painted in exile. The success of the exhibition was enormous, and it is difficult to imagine greater joy for the Russian artist.
She died on September 19, 1967.
Zinaida Evgenievna was buried at the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve de Bois near Paris.
Biography of Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova
(1884-1967)
Zinaida Serebryakova was born on November 28, 1884 in the Neskuchnoye family estate near Kharkov. Her father was a famous sculptor. Mother came from the Benois family, and in her youth she was a graphic artist. Her brothers were no less talented, the younger one was an architect, and the older one was a master of monumental painting and graphics.
Zinaida owes her artistic development primarily to her uncle Alexander Benois, her mother's brother and elder brother. The artist spent her childhood and youth in St. Petersburg in the house of her grandfather, architect N. L. Benois, and in the Neskuchny estate. Zinaida's attention was always attracted by the work of young peasant girls in the field. Subsequently, this is reflected more than once in her work.
In 1886, after the death of his father, the family moved from the estate to St. Petersburg. All family members were busy creative activity, Zina also painted with enthusiasm.
In 1900, Zinaida graduated from the women's gymnasium and entered the art school founded by Princess M. K. Tenisheva.
In 1902-1903, during a trip to Italy, she created many sketches and studies.
In 1905 she marries Boris Anatolyevich Serebryakov, her cousin. After the wedding, the young went to Paris. Here Zinaida attends the Academy de la Grande Chaumière, works hard, draws from nature.
A year later, the young return home. In Neskuchny, Zinaida works hard - she creates sketches, portraits and landscapes. In the very first works of the artist, you can already see her own style to determine the scope of her interests. In 1910, Zinaida Serebryakova was waiting for real success.
In 1910, at the 7th exhibition of Russian artists in Moscow, the Tretyakov Gallery acquired a self-portrait "Behind the Toilet" and gouache "Green in Autumn". Her landscapes are magnificent - pure, bright tones of colors, the perfection of technology, the unprecedented beauty of nature.
The flowering of the artist's work occurs in 1914-1917. Zinaida Serebryakova created a series of paintings dedicated to the Russian village, peasant labor and Russian nature - "Peasants", "Sleeping Peasant Woman".
In the painting "Whitening of the Canvas", Serebryakova's bright talent as a muralist was revealed.
In 1916, A. N. Benois was entrusted with painting the Kazansky railway station in Moscow, he also attracted Zinaida to work. The artist took up the theme of the countries of the East: India, Japan, Türkiye. She allegorically represented these countries in the form of beautiful women. At the same time, she began work on compositions on the themes of ancient myths. Self-portraits occupy a special role in the work of Zinaida Serebryakova.
During the civil war, Zinaida's husband was on a survey in Siberia, and she and her children were in Neskuchny. It seemed impossible to move to Petrograd, and Zinaida went to Kharkov, where she found work in the Archaeological Museum. Her family estate in "Neskuchny" burned down, all her works perished. Boris later died. Circumstances force the artist to leave Russia. She goes to France. All these years the artist lived in constant thoughts about her husband. She painted four portraits of her husband, which are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Novosibirsk Art Gallery.
In the 1920s, Zinaida Serebryakova returned with her children to Petrograd, to Benois's former apartment. Zinaida's daughter Tatyana began to study ballet. Zinaida, together with her daughter visit Mariinskii Opera House, there are also behind the scenes. In the theater, Zinaida constantly painted. In 1922 she created a portrait of D. Balanchine dressed as Bacchus. Creative communication with ballerinas over the course of three years was reflected in an amazing series of ballet portraits and compositions.
The family is going through hard times. Serebryakova tried to paint paintings to order, but she did not succeed. She loved to work with nature.
In the first years after the revolution, a lively exhibition activity began in the country. In 1924 Serebryakova became an exhibitor of a large exhibition of Russian fine arts in America. All the paintings presented to her were sold. With the proceeds, she decides to go to Paris to arrange an exhibition and receive orders. She leaves in 1924.
The years spent in Paris did not bring her joy and creative satisfaction. She yearned for her homeland, sought to reflect her love for her in her paintings. Her first exhibition took place only in 1927. She sent the money she earned to her mother and children.
In 1961, two Soviet artists, S. Gerasimov and D. Shmarinov, visited her in Paris. Later in 1965, they arrange an exhibition for her in Moscow.
In 1966, the last, large exhibition of Serebryakova's works took place in Leningrad and Kyiv.
In 1967, in Paris, at the age of 82, Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova died.
Creativity Z.E. Serebryakova in the context of the work
Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova... This name is connected for me with the painting, which is in Tretyakov Gallery: a young woman in front of a mirror ... The memory remains a feeling of amazing purity and clarity of the image, a rare combination of spiritual and physical beauty ...
Ivan Antonovich Efremov in the novel "The Razor's Edge" recalls Zinaida Serebryakova as a remarkable Russian artist, "one of the most outstanding Russian masters, undeservedly forgotten." The artist devoted her whole life to collecting beauty, capturing it on her canvases.
Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova was born in 1884, in the family of Lansere-Benois, a famous Russian artistic dynasty. Her father, Evgeny Alexandrovich Lansere, was a famous sculptor, he died when Zina was only 2 years old and she knew about him only from the stories of her relatives. Her mother, Ekaterina Nikolaevna Lansere, was from famous family artists and architects Benois.
Baby and youth Zinaida Evgenievna were held in St. Petersburg. The architecture and museums of St. Petersburg, the luxurious park of Tsarskoye Selo, where the family traveled in the summer, had their influence on the formation of the young artist. Spirit high art reigned in the house. In the Benois and Lancer families, the main meaning of life was the service of art. Every day, Zina could watch how adults worked selflessly, painted a lot with watercolors, the technique of which was owned by everyone in the family. The girl's talent developed under close attention older family members: mothers and brothers who were preparing to become professional artists. All home furnishings families brought up respect for classical art: stories of his grandfather - Nikolai Leontievich about the Academy of Arts, trips with children to Italy, where they got acquainted with the masterpieces of the Renaissance, visiting museums. In 1905, S. Diaghilev organized an exhibition of Russian portrait painters in St. Petersburg. For the first time, the beauty of the art of Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Venetsianov was revealed to the Russian public: Venetian portraits of peasants, poetization peasant labor inspired Zinaida Serebryakova to create her paintings, pushed her to serious work on portraits.
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In 1905, she married Boris Anatolyevich Serebryakov, a neighbor on the estate. They had known each other since childhood and wanted to connect their lives despite being cousins. Many obstacles had to be overcome, as they were of different religions and quite close relatives. After trips to Belgorod and Kharkov to the spiritual authorities, permission was finally received and the young people were able to get married. Boris Anatolyevich was a student at the Institute of Communications and belonged to that part of the Russian intelligentsia that believed that a person should have a "mind and heart in harmony" and that spouses, for all the difference of interests, should be like-minded. The young people first left for Paris, and then, returning, settled in the Neskuchnoye family estate on the border of the Kursk region and Ukraine.
Zinaida Evgenievna loved the Russian countryside with all her heart. And when you love something, you see only good and bright in it. The artist wrote that she "fell in love with the boundless expanse of fields, with the picturesque appearance of the peasants, so different from the city faces." Sketches from rural life appear in her albums.
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Her landscapes and sketches are close to impressionism in their purity and sound of colors, in such a way of reflecting reality, when the world is seen as filled with pure inspiration and joy of life.
Many of their very best work Serebryakova writes, inspired by images Russian peasant women. Peasant girls, their harmony clean souls And strong bodies, hardened physical labor and life close to nature, will become for the artist the standard of that unconditional beauty, about which Ivan Antonovich Efremov speaks in "The Razor's Edge" through the lips of Ivan Girin: "... Beauty is highest degree expediency, the degree of harmonic correspondence of the combination of contradictory elements in any device, in any thing, in any organism. Therefore, each beautiful line, form, combination - this is an expedient solution developed by nature over millions of years natural selection or found by a person in his search for beauty, that is, the most correct for a given thing. Beauty is that general regularity leveling chaos, the great middle in expedient universality, all-round attractive, like a statue. It is not difficult, knowing materialistic dialectics, to see that beauty is the right line in the unity and struggle of opposites, that very middle between the two sides of any phenomenon, any thing that the ancient Greeks saw and called ariston - the best, considering measure as a synonym for this word, more precisely - knowing of limits. I imagine this measure as something extremely thin - a razor blade, because finding it, implementing it, observing it is often as difficult as walking along a razor blade, almost invisible due to its extreme sharpness ... The main thing I wanted to say is it is that there is an objective reality that we perceive as unconditional beauty."
