The composition of Vrubel’s painting “Portrait of Zabela on the background of birches”
In 1896, an eternal wanderer, an unsettled and homeless painter finds his pier. His dream came true. He fell in love. Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela – a famous singer – becomes the artist’s wife.
Vrubel was infinitely happy. He idolized his wife: he went to all her rehearsals and plays, invented and personally made her outfits for the stage and life. She was his muse in life and in creativity.
He creates a suite of portraits of his wife. Her face lives in some fairy-tale and mythological female characters of his paintings, shining through them or with familiar features, or the favorite musical tonality of the color scale.
During the work on the painting Demon defeated (1902) Vrubel had serious symptoms of mental illness, and then, with small intervals of time, the disease progressed and did not leave the artist until his death.
A significant role in the treatment of Vrubel was played by Dr. Usoltsev. His private clinic was in the Petrovsky Park
Appreciating the art of Vrubel, Usoltsev paid him special attention and hoped for his complete cure. The artist lived with him completely freely, he was provided with all the conditions for work. His wife and sister rented a house nearby, visited him every day, and he also came to their house. Vrubel felt good and worked hard.
In these conditions, Vrubel creates one of the most delicate, fragile images – Portrait of NI Zabela-Vrubel against the background of birches (1904). Walking in the summer of 1904 at the park in Petrovsky, he admired the harmonious birches,
This portrait is one of the monuments of Vrubel’s attachment to his wife, in which he saw something angelic. And it is remarkable that Vrubel was able to poeticize the shortcomings of Zabela’s appearance, and even, as her sister writes, “she often exaggerated her shortcomings, because they especially liked him.”