The composition of Vrubel’s painting “Portrait of the artist’s son”


Vrubel was happy when he had a son named Sawa. The joyful father found an art talent in the newly born child, assured his relatives that Savvushka “is unusually staring.” In the portrait, the boy is depicted sitting in a wicker from a vine, leaning on white and pink cushions of the finest fabric. Behind a large bouquet of white-yellow and white-lilac flowers. A dark blue with white pea scarf helps to focus attention on the boy’s face. He has a high forehead, light hair blond with a tuft of hair. Savushka was born with a vice – a forked upper lip – and the artist does not hide this detail: it brings to the child’s face a strange, hidden sadness.
But most striking in the portrait is the look of the boy’s large bright eyes. The very one, seen only by his father, an unusually steadfast gaze. How seriously the child looks at the viewer, as if he sees something, only he opened himself. What a deep, unsolved thought in his eyes! And why is there so much childish grief in them? Probably, Vrubel did not leave anxiety for the fate of her beloved son. And foresight did not deceive the artist: Savushka had to live very shortly.


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The composition of Vrubel’s painting “Portrait of the artist’s son”