Studio: international art (56.1912)

Studio- Talk

through a tragic event which took place last
December—namely, the sudden death of Valentin
Seroff, undoubtedly one of the most important of
Russia’s modem artists, whose ranks have suffered
irreparable loss through his departure, and at the
same time one of her most conspicuous figures.
The contemplated commemorative exhibition of
SerofFs works, which it is to be hoped will not
turn out to be a mere promise as was the case
with M. Vroubel, but will be an actuality, will
be a suitable opportunity for dealing fully with
the career and achievements of this portrait-painter,
whose works have on fre-
quent occasions been re-
produced in The Studio.

Here, however, we are con-
cerned only with those
latest works of his which
figured in the “Mir
Isskousstva” exhibition,
and of these some had
already become familiar at
the International Art Exhi-
bition held in Rome last
year, as for instance the
quite original but at the
same time not wholly irre-
proachable portrait of the
actress Mile. Ida Rubin-
stein, in the form of a nude
study, and the brilliantly
painted portrait of Countess
Orloff. The chief attrac-
tion, however, was his
portrait of Mons. A.

Stachovitch, in which the
characteristic qualities of
Seroff’s talent are strongly
pronounced—a penetrating
vision almost psychological
in its depth, a broad, virile
style of painting, and a sub-
dued but pleasant colora-
tion. Besides these works
of Shroff, a lively interest
was excited by a fine por-
trait of a man by M.

Vroubel, but the rest of the
portraits, those by N.

Milliotti, N. Julianoff, and
the somewhat too poster-
like work of Petroff-
Vodkin, failed to give
complete satisfaction.

76

Works intended for the theatre, decorative de-
signs and costume drawings, continue to play a
prominent r&le in Russian art, as indeed one is
sufficiently aware from the Russian operas and
ballets performed in Paris and London. At the
“ Mir Isskousstva ” exhibition M. Alexander Benois
showed his very piquant designs for the ballet
“ Petroushka,” to which he has intentionally im-
parted a national character; and likewise N.
Sapunoff with Moliere’s “Bourgeois-Gentilhomme.”
In this latter artist’s work the colour harmonies are
of particular charm, but one would like to see a

PORTRAIT OF THE COUNTESS ORLOFF

(“ Mir Isskousstva ’

Exhibition, Moscow)

BY V. SEROFF