1887
If you were to pin me down and demand to know which Russian painting was “the greatest of all time”, this is the one that I would vote for. Yes, this is my most favourite piece of Russian art. Mind you, my favourite artist is Zinaida Serebyakova, but, as far as individual paintings are concerning, this deserves to stand with the best of all time.
BMD
Part Three of the portraiture of Valentin Serov. This rounds out this series of Serov’s portraits and human studies. No doubt, you can see why he was considered the premier Russian portraitist of his day. In fact, he died of a heart attack in 1911 whilst he was hurrying to a sitting with a client. God was good. He spared Serov the pain of seeing his beloved country crash down into ruin some six years later. I used my sole Serov still life as an appropriate end to this cycle. The painting before the flowers is A Girl with Peaches (1887), my absolute favourite piece in our Russian oeuvre. The music is the Nocturne in C sharp minor, op 27 nr 1 by Frédéric Chopin played by Yevgeny Kissin. All three Serov videos use Chopin nocturnes performed by Kissin for two reasons. Firstly, it provides a thematic bridge between the three parts. Secondly, I used nocturnes because “night” was about to fall on Serov’s world… “a world of lost brightness”. The sun didn’t fully rise again for 75 years.
BMD
Part Two of the portraiture of Valentin Serov. His famous portrait of Tsar St Nikolai Aleksandrovich the New Martyr is at the end of this programme. The portrait preceding that painting is of his daughter, Grand Princess St Olga Nikolaevna. They were murdered by the Reds in Yekaterinburg on 4/17 July 1918. Unfortunately, there were those in the diaspora who attacked the canonisation of the New Martyrs on sophistical grounds. Fittingly, those who did so are now undergoing a severe internal crisis. God DOES see and judge! The music is the Nocturne in D flat major, op 27 nr 2 by Frédéric Chopin played by Yevgeny Kissin.
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The portraiture of Valentin Serov. Serov was one of the Russian Impressionists and was the most renowned portraitist in fin du sieclè Petersburg. He was known for his bright palette and the lightness of his paintings. It was truly a “world of lost brightness”, for this was the final stage before the revolution (although no knew that, of course). Contrary to what many believe, it was not poor peasants or workers who made the revolution, it was Westernised intellectuals who had lost their Russian roots. Oddly enough, some of them fled the Bolshevik takeover and settled in France, where they formed a rebel church that has infected portions of the Orthodox Church in the USA (although it is dying out, thankfully). The music is the Nocturne in A flat major, op 32 nr 2 by Frédéric Chopin played by Yevgeny Kissin.
BMD
2002
Bill Jones noted in a personal communication to me that he has a love of Russian Impressionism. He noted that he was “blown away” by an exhibition of Soviet Impressionistic works. Therefore, Bill, this work by Valery Badakva is dedicated to you (I do try to listen to my readers!). Parenthetically, my own favourite Russian artwork is A Girl with Peaches (1887) by Valentin Serov, one of the early Russian Impressionists. By the way, he was one of the greatest portraitists in the Russian milieu.
BMD
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