Painting by Serov “Portrait of Mikhail K. Oliv”


In 90 years, the skill of Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov in terms of portraits reached its heyday. He wrote one of his best works “Portrait of MK Olive.” Marie Konstantinovna Oliv is a well-known patron and cousin of SI Mamontov. It was this painting that compared Serov with other outstanding and famous masters of painting.

The picture is painted all in dark colors. A woman in a black dress almost merges with a slightly lighter background. The only bright spot on the whole canvas is only the woman’s face. If you look at the picture close, you can see that the strokes are very wide, expressed expressively with some force. The face in the woman is calm, with a kind of sly smile. In the eyes of a certain spark of cunning, but with the same, they are kind and funny. Hair, apparently, folded into a tall bunch, but it connects to the background of the picture. A wide necklace on the woman’s neck just shines with silvery rays against a dark background.

At first glance, it may seem that the picture is unfinished. Roughness of smears, sharp transitions, and sometimes even fusion of colors. But all these details make it so special and attractive. The woman in the picture is depicted with some roughness of the brush, it seems, even more fragile and feminine. The author has invested a lot of psychological sense in his creation. And, although it may seem to us that the portrait was created easily and quickly, it is not so. Above the portrait of the eccentric Mari Oliv, the author worked very long. And in reward for the time spent, he created a real pearl in the treasury of Russian painting. Canvas full of mystery and mastery of performance attracts the eye not only art lovers. In the picture “Portrait of MK Olive” Valentin Serov has invested all his talent and soul. Maybe,


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Painting by Serov “Portrait of Mikhail K. Oliv”