Artist Zinaida Serebryakova. Life in pictures

18.04.2019

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“This is a man’s, man’s world” - James Brown once sang, saying that men hold the world. The history of painting is an indirect confirmation of this: try to close your eyes and name at least ten world-famous women artists. The classical representation of a woman in painting has always been unanimous: she is a muse, a model, a friend of a male artist, whose image inspired and stood at the center of his work. Among the first female artists were brave women who were ready to challenge society: they had to not only confront the male creative diaspora, but also assert themselves as an artist of the same high level.

One of these women was Zinaida Serebryakova: she headed a number of the first women painters who entered the history of Russian painting... Despite her image of a fragile, feminine and young beauty, the fate of Serebryakova was difficult, full of hardships and difficulties, and her work during her lifetime did not receive universal recognition.

Early years

Zinaida Serebryakova was born in St. Petersburg. The future artist began to paint from an early age. Her whole family came from a creative dynasty: her father Eugene Lansere was a famous sculptor, grandfather Nikolai Benois was a renowned architect, and her mother Ekaterina Lansere was engaged in graphic drawing. Parents strongly supported the creative endeavors of their children - from an early age little Zina attends exhibitions in the Hermitage, goes to theaters to ballets, is engaged in academic drawing and is very enthusiastic about reading large and rare books on art from her home library.

In 1886, the house suffered a misfortune - the girl's father, Eugene Lansere, died, and the family was forced to return to St. Petersburg. There Serebryakova graduated from high school and entered an art workshop, where Osip Braz and Ilya Repin became her mentors. Like other students, she went to the Hermitage and made copies of paintings by old masters. The girl continued to exercise and, while in Italy in 1902-1903, made sketches and studies. Subsequently, this "classical school" of painting will manifest itself in the manner of the artist: her nude models refer us to the best examples of the Renaissance.

"Young Peasant Woman in the Kitchen" 1900s | "Portrait of M.E. Lansere (artist's sister)" 1901

In 1905, two years after returning from Italy, the girl married her cousin, Boris Serebryakov, with whose surname she would later go down in the history of Russian painting. After the wedding, the young family left for France, where the artist attended the Accademia de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, making many sketches and drawings in the open air. A year later, the couple returned to St. Petersburg, to the Neskuchnoye estate, where Serebryakova worked tirelessly: sketches, sketches, everyday scenes. It was here that she would later develop as an artist, creating the most magnificent and famous works that, after her death, will receive worldwide recognition.

"Terrace" 1910th

"Apples on the branches" 1910s

"Cabbage. The village of Neskuchnoye "1909

“In the meadow. Neskuchnoe "1910th

Beauty Russia

Zinaida Serebryakova can rightfully be considered a truly Russian artist: her canvases reflect an immeasurable love for her homeland. Her works are windows into the endless world of Russian nature, which allow us to admire its enchanting beauty, fields strewn with flowers and gold. Simple and everyday scenes - village, street, home - these are the main subjects of the artist, from which she drew her inspiration. She was especially fond of the peasant way of life: her series of "peasant" canvases, written from 1914 to 1917, tells about life in the Russian countryside, about the everyday life of hardworking peasants, about the charming simplicity of their life. The titles of the works are uncomplicated and open, like their characters - these are "Peasants", "Harvest", "Sleeping Peasant Woman".

"Peasants" 1914

"Harvest" 1915

"Sleeping Peasant" 1917

The painting "Whitening of the Canvas" (1917) became especially significant, where Serebryakova proved herself not only as a master of composition, but also as a talented monumental artist. The work was created within the framework of an epic cycle dedicated to peasant life - this also included the written "Harvest" and the planned "Shearing of the Sheep". Along with female characters, the artist's paintings always feature one more female image - the image of the beautiful Russian woman, her nature, her folk flavor.

"Whitening of the canvas" 1917

Zinaida Serebryakova gave the world a real Russian beauty - feminine, girlish, mischievous, gentle, with a French flair in her eyes and a mysterious half-smile in the style of Rokotov. She painted women of various professions and ages, including herself, breathing in all her images the invisible and inviting freshness of youth, that romance that she lacked on a difficult life path. In other words, she wrote her desired life and herself in it. Such was the famous self-portrait of Serebryakova "Behind the Toilet", created in 1909: it reflects the state and mood of the artist, in which she would like to live. On her bright face there is a clear smile and the joy of realizing her life, beauty and youth, and the traditional depiction of painting objects is inferior to the depiction of the attributes of female beauty - jewelry, perfumes, charming caskets. Thus, Serebryakova seems to be deliberately moving away from the world of artists, as if declaring: first of all, I am a woman - beautiful, young, eager to live. The painting of the young artist became her pass to the world of great masters: in 1910, after the exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists, the work was acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery, where the self-portrait is located to this day. This is how the girl's talent gets its recognition for the first time.

“Behind the toilet. Self-portrait "1908-1909

Hard years

Serebryakova deliberately avoided modernism, remaining unwaveringly faithful to her style even in the hungry time of the revolution. Not wanting to make an instrument of ideological struggle out of her work, she with all her might resisted the attempts of the authorities to impose futurism on her. Observing how art becomes a slave at the feet of power, Zinaida mournfully reflected in her diary: “Life seems to me now a senseless vanity and a lie - now everyone's brains are very clogged, and now there is nothing sacred in the world, everything is ruined, debunked, trampled on into the dirt ... ". The shortage of paints forced her to create with improvised materials, and the exhibits of the archaeological museum in the Kharkov province became a field for creativity - while working there during this period, the artist continued to make graphic sketches. In 1916, Serebryakova became a participant in the decoration of the Kazan railway station, where she was attracted by A. Benois.

Panel sketches for the Kazansky railway station in Moscow, 1916

Life was becoming unbearably difficult, money for food was sorely lacking. A series of difficulties that had begun were soon followed by a new one. In 1919, a terrible misfortune happens in the life of Serebryakova: her beloved husband dies of typhus. Zinaida is left alone with her mother and small children in her arms. Grief from loss is aggravated by the general mood of society: the revolution takes away from people bread, livelihoods and all hope for life. That fresh, youthful feeling that was born when looking at Serebryakova's canvases was replaced by pain and a breakdown: fragile female happiness crumbled like a house of cards. It is this image that will give the name to one of the most famous paintings by Serebryakova - here it is, "House of Cards", which is being built by her children who have been left without a father. Their eyes are downcast, their faces are in humble sadness, they are building a turret of cards that can crumble at any moment, as a person's life can end ... Today the work is in the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

"House of Cards" 1919

Lack of funds and a burnt-out estate forced Serebryakova in the 1920s. return to St. Petersburg, to my grandfather's apartment. Here the artist's little daughter Tatyana begins to study ballet, and my mother often visits the theater with her and constantly works: for example, as a result of three years of fruitful creativity, Serebryakova created a number of wonderful canvases - compositions and portraits - on a ballet theme.

“Ballet dressing room. Snowflakes "1923

"Girls-Sylphs" 1924

"Portrait of AD Danilova in a theatrical costume" 1922 | "Portrait of VK Ivanova dressed as a Spanish woman" 1924 | "Portrait of E.N. Heidenreich in red" 1923

Departure to a foreign land

After the revolution, the country began again and gain popularity shows and openings, works Russian artists began to exhibit abroad. Serebryakova was no exception: in 1924, her paintings were appreciated by visitors to an exhibition of Russian fine art in America. The works were a huge success and were soon all sold out. This encouraged the artist: in the same year she decided to leave for Paris and work there. but After some time Serebryakova understands that she I was deceived. Her next exhibition abroad took place only in 1927. Orders were constantly lacking, but the art that I liked local public, Serebryakova considered vulgar kitsch, idle bad taste. It was not that sincere in him e go, Russian, the spirituality that she glorified in her work. For the rest of her life, Zinaida wanted to return back - to her children, mother, to that life in St. Petersburg, from which she began her career, but until the end of her days remained "locked" in France: the war and the occupation of Paris made it impossible to return to Russia. The artist will describe her boundless nostalgia at the end of her life in her diary: “Nothing has come of my life here, and I often think that I did an irreparable thing, breaking away from the soil…”. Serebryakova died in Paris at the age of 82, never returning to her homeland. Her nostalgia for everything Russian is still alive in her amazing works, which have become messengers of the image of the Beauty-Russia around the world.

Biography of Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova

(1884-1967)

Zinaida Serebryakova was born on November 28, 1884 in the family estate "Neskuchnoye", near Kharkov. Her father was a renowned sculptor. The mother came from the Benoit family and was a graphic artist in her youth. Her brothers were no less talented, the youngest was an architect, and the senior was a master of monumental painting and graphics.

Zinaida owes her artistic development primarily to her uncle Alexander Benois, her mother's brother and older brother. The artist spent her childhood and youth in St. Petersburg in the house of her grandfather, architect N. L. Benois and in the Neskuchny estate. Zinaida's attention was always attracted by the work of young peasant girls in the field. Subsequently, this will be reflected more than once in her work.

In 1886, after the death of his father, the family moved from the estate to St. Petersburg. All family members were engaged in creative activities, and Zina drew with enthusiasm.

In 1900, Zinaida graduated from a female gymnasium and entered an art school founded by Princess M.K.Tenisheva.

In 1902-1903, during a trip to Italy, she created many sketches and studies.

In 1905 she married Boris Anatolyevich Serebryakov, her cousin. After the wedding, the young went to Paris. Here Zinaida attends the Accademia de la Grande Chaumiere, works a lot, draws from life.

A year later, the young return home. In Neskuchny, Zinaida works hard - she creates sketches, portraits and landscapes. In the very first works of the artist, one can already discern her own style, determine the range of her interests. In 1910, real success awaits Zinaida Serebryakova.

In 1910, at the 7th exhibition of Russian artists in Moscow, the Tretyakov Gallery acquired a self-portrait "Behind the Toilet" and gouache "Green in the fall". Her landscapes are magnificent - clean, bright colors, perfection of technology, unprecedented beauty of nature.

The heyday in the artist's work occurs in 1914-1917. Zinaida Serebryakova created a series of paintings dedicated to the Russian countryside, peasant labor and Russian nature - "Peasants", "Sleeping Peasant Woman".

The painting "Whitening of the Canvas" revealed Serebryakova's bright talent as a monumental artist.

In 1916, A. N. Benois was entrusted with painting the Kazansky railway station in Moscow; he also attracted Zinaida to work. The artist took up the theme of the countries of the East: India, Japan, Turkey. She allegorically presented these countries in the form of beautiful women. At the same time, she began work on compositions on the themes of ancient myths. Self-portraits play a special role in the work of Zinaida Serebryakova.

During the civil war, Zinaida's husband was on research in Siberia, and she and her children were in Neskuchny. It seemed impossible to move to Petrograd, and Zinaida went to Kharkov, where she found work in the Archaeological Museum. Her family estate in "Neskuchny" burned down, and all her works perished. Boris later died. Circumstances force the artist to leave Russia. She goes to France. All these years the artist lived in constant thoughts of her husband. She painted four portraits of her husband, which are kept in the Tretyakov Gallery and the Novosibirsk Picture Gallery.

In the 1920s, Zinaida Serebryakova returned with her children to Petrograd, to Benois's former apartment. Zinaida's daughter Tatyana began to study ballet. Zinaida, together with her daughter, visit the Mariinsky Theater, there are also behind the scenes. In the theater, Zinaida constantly painted. In 1922 she created a portrait of D. Balanchine in the costume of Bacchus. Creative communication with ballerinas over the course of three years is reflected in an amazing series of ballet portraits and compositions.

The family is going through difficult times. Serebryakova tried to paint to order, but nothing came of it. She loved to work with nature.

In the first years after the revolution, a lively exhibition activity began in the country. In 1924, Serebryakova became an exhibitor at a large exhibition of Russian fine art in America. All the paintings presented to her were sold. With the money raised, she decides to go to Paris to arrange an exhibition and receive orders. She leaves in 1924.

The years spent in Paris did not bring her joy and creative satisfaction. She yearned for her homeland, sought to reflect her love for her in her paintings. Her first exhibition took place only in 1927. She sent the earned money to mothers and children.

In 1961, two Soviet artists, S. Gerasimov and D. Shmarinov, visited her in Paris. Later in 1965, they put on an exhibition for her in Moscow.

In 1966, the last, large exhibition of Serebryakova's works took place in Leningrad and Kiev.

In 1967, in Paris at the age of 82, Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova died.

Creativity Z.E. Serebryakova in the context of the work

Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova ... This name is associated for me with a painting in the Tretyakov Gallery: a young woman in front of a mirror ... The feeling of amazing purity and clarity of the image, a rare combination of mental and physical beauty remains in my memory ...

Ivan Antonovich Efremov in his novel "The Razor's Edge" recalls Zinaida Serebryakova as a remarkable Russian artist, "one of the most outstanding Russian masters, undeservedly forgotten." The artist devoted her entire life to collecting beauty, capturing it on her canvases.

Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova was born in 1884 to the Lansere-Benois family, a renowned artistic dynasty in Russia. Her father, Evgeny Alexandrovich Lanceray, was a famous sculptor, he died when Zina was only 2 years old and she knew about him only from the stories of her relatives. Her mother, Ekaterina Nikolaevna Lansere, was from the famous Benois family of artists and architects.

Zinaida Evgenievna spent her childhood and adolescence in St. Petersburg. The architecture and museums of St. Petersburg, the magnificent Tsarskoe Selo park, where the family traveled in the summer, had their influence on the formation of the young artist. The spirit of high art reigned in the house as well. In the Benoit and Lancer families, the main purpose of life was to serve the arts. Every day Zina could observe how adults selflessly worked, painted a lot with watercolors, the technique of which everyone in the family owned. The girl's talent developed under the close attention of the older members of the family: mother and brothers, who were preparing to become professional artists. The whole family's home environment brought up respect for classical art: the stories of his grandfather - Nikolai Leontyevich about the Academy of Arts, trips with children to Italy, where they got acquainted with the masterpieces of the Renaissance, visits to museums. In 1905 in St. Petersburg S. Diaghilev organized an exhibition of Russian portrait painters. The beauty of the art of Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Venetsianov was first revealed to the Russian public: Venetian portraits of peasants, the poeticization of peasant labor inspired Zinaida Serebryakova to create her paintings, pushed her to serious work on portraits.

In 1905 she married Boris Anatolyevich Serebryakov, a neighbor on the estate. They had known each other since childhood and wanted to connect their lives, despite the fact that they were cousins. There were many obstacles to overcome, as they were of different denominations and rather close relatives. After trips to Belgorod and Kharkov to see the spiritual authorities, permission was finally obtained and the young people were able to get married. Boris Anatolyevich was a student at the Institute of Railways and belonged to that part of the Russian intelligentsia who believed that a person should have a "mind with a heart in harmony" and that spouses, with all the difference of interests, should be like-minded. The young people first left for Paris, and then, returning, settled in the family estate "Neskuchnoye" on the border of the Kursk region and Ukraine.

Zinaida Evgenievna loved the Russian countryside with all her heart. And when you love something, you see only good and light in it. The artist wrote that she "fell in love with the boundless breadth of the fields, with the picturesque appearance of the peasants, so different from city faces." Sketches from rural life appear in her albums.

Her landscapes and sketches are close to impressionism in their purity and the sound of colors, in such a way of reflecting reality, when the world is seen filled with pure inspiration and the joy of life.

Serebryakova will write many of her best works inspired by the images of Russian peasant women. Peasant girls, the harmony of their pure souls and strong bodies, hardened by physical labor and life close to nature, will become for the artist the standard of that unconditional beauty about which Ivan Antonovich Efremov speaks in "The Razor's Edge" through the lips of Ivan Girin: "... Beauty is the highest degree of expediency, the degree of harmonious correspondence of the combination of contradictory elements in every device, in every thing, in every organism. Therefore, every beautiful line, shape, combination is an expedient solution developed by nature over millions of years of natural selection or found man in his search for the beautiful, that is, the most correct for a given thing. Beauty is that general regularity leveling chaos, the great middle in purposeful universality, all-round attractive, like a statue. It is not difficult, knowing the materialistic dialectics, to see that beauty is the correct line in unity and struggle of opposites, that very middle between the two sides of every phenomenon, every thing, which the ancient Greeks saw and called Ariston - the best, considering a synonym for this word measure, more precisely - a sense of proportion. I imagine this measure as something extremely subtle - razor blade, because to find it, to carry it out, not to observe it rarely as difficult as walking on a razor blade, almost invisible due to its extreme sharpness ... The main thing I wanted to say is that there is an objective reality that we perceive as unconditional beauty. "

(November 28 (December 10) 1884, p. Neskuchnoe (at different times referred to the Kursk and Kharkov provinces), Russian Empire - September 19, 1967, Paris, France)- Russian artist, member of the "World of Art" society, who emigrated to Paris after the revolution. The representative of neoclassicism.

Features of the work of the artist Zinaida Serebryakova: simplicity and grace of lines, restraint, plasticity, clarity. Zinaida Serebryakova wrote at the time of the emergence of many avant-garde movements, but none of them captured her. Her work stands apart. Particularly distinguished in the heritage of Serebryakova are numerous self-portraits, portraits of children, nude, as well as scenes of folk life, which, in her performance, acquire mythology, go from the everyday level to the everyday one.

Famous paintings by Zinaida Serebryakova: “Behind the toilet. Self-portrait ", "Bather",
At Breakfast, House of Cards, Canvas Whitening.

Zinaida Serebryakova was destined to live two destinies. In the first, she is a descendant of an artistic family, a happy, beloved and loving wife, the mother of adored children and a talented artist who entered Russian painting with her self-portrait in front of a mirror, in which happiness, love, contentment, freshness and joy of life seem to be concentrated. The second fate is a widow, separated from her children, struggling to earn a piece of bread, finding no place in a foreign land and losing her homeland, torn apart by anxiety and devoured by hopeless longing.

Happy life of Zinaida Serebryakova

Zinaida Lancera was destined to draw - by fate, not by fate, but by her family - for sure. Zina's father, Eugene Lansere, was a famous St. Petersburg sculptor, mother - nee Ekaterina Benois, the sister of Alexander Benois. Zina is the youngest child, she was not even two years old when her father died of consumption. From the Neskuchnoye estate (then - the Kursk province of the Russian Empire, now - the Kharkov region of Ukraine), the mother and children moved to St. Petersburg to the parental home.

Against the background of sociable, cheerful brothers and sisters, Zina seemed wild, withdrawn. It seems that she was the only one who went like a father, and not into a cheerful friendly mother's relatives. She studied at the gymnasium, went with her mother to art exhibitions and theatrical premieres, painted, of course - in this family it could not be otherwise. The only thing that worried the mother was the girl's poor health. Of all the children, she grew up the most painful.

At the age of eighteen, Zinusha, as her relatives called her, went with her mother to Italy to restore her health. Soon they were joined by Alexander Benois, for Zina - "Uncle Shura". And he arranged magnificent art and cultural excursions for the ladies! On the way back, specifically for the sake of visiting museums, we drove through Vienna. In St. Petersburg, Zinaida, following the advice of “Uncle Shura,” visited the studio of Osip Braz, a famous portrait painter, academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts. She did not have a heart for the ceremonial portrait, so beloved by Braz, therefore Serebryakova did not say anything good about this stage of her education later. But the time spent in the Hermitage, where she visited almost every day, she considered very important.

In addition to the joy of painting, the girl's life was illuminated by another great joy - love. The family spent the summer in Neskuchny, where their relatives, the Serebryakovs, lived on a neighboring estate. With Boris, her cousin, Zina was familiar from childhood, over time, friendship grew into love. The young people decided to get married, but they did not succeed right away. Parents were in favor, but the church opposed because of the kinship of the lovers. However, 300 rubles and an appeal to the third, after two refusals, the priest was allowed to solve the problem. They got married in 1905. Very beautiful couple! Tall, stately, perky, in love, a little idealistic. They seemed to have a very happy life. And they had it, but not as long as dreamed.

Soon after the wedding, the young people left for Paris. Zinaida was expecting the birth of her first child and improved her painting skills at the Academy de la Grande Chaumiere (again, on the advice of Benoit). She enthusiastically admired the paintings of Monet and Manet, Sisley, was delighted with Degas - and carried love to the latter throughout her life, having entered into a dialogue with him with a series of her ballerinas (,,,).

From her very marriage to the revolution, Zinaida Serebryakova was happier than ever. Their lives were simple, calm and joyful. In winter they lived in St. Petersburg, in warm weather - in Neskuchny. They did not particularly participate in secular entertainments; Zinaida's interests revolved around her children, her beloved husband and painting. Even when walking with the children, she certainly took the album with her.

In 1910, at the exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists in St. Petersburg, Zinaida Serebryakova amazed not only the audience, but also her relatives, including “Uncle Shura”. Her self-portrait "Behind the Toilet" made a splash. Such freshness, such sincerity and joy of youth emanated from the picture that no one had any doubts: a new artist had appeared in Russia. Her style was defined as neoclassicism.

By 1913, the Serebryakovs already had four children: the older boys Zhenya and Sasha and the girls Tata and Katya. Zinaida was very fond of the estate in Neskuchny, she even preferred to give birth to children there, despite her mother's anxiety. In Neskuchny, she led a simple life, wore wide skirts and light blouses and painted at every free minute - children, husband, peasants, landscapes.

Zinaida and Boris got along with the peasants. If Boris discovered that someone had stolen a wheel or a salting tub from the master's yard, then he gently scolded the culprit: "Why didn't I ask, I would give you anyway"... And when the fatal salvo from the Aurora thundered, Zinaida, smiling, was sincerely happy for the peasants on the estate: “Well , Nikitishna, congratulations, now you are not just a peasant, now you are a citizen! ".

And a volley burst

After the revolution in Russia, probably everyone faced changes in their lives. But in the case of Serebryakova, these are not “changes”, these are before and after, two different lives. Happiness remained in the one that was before the volley. Boris was arrested, the estate in Neskuchny was burned down. Fortunately, their peasants were warned, so the Serebryakovs left for Kharkov on time. Released, Boris died in the arms of his wife from typhus, leaving her in the "country of the people" under construction with four children.

In Kharkov, Zinaida got a job at an archaeological institute, made sketches of archaeological finds and was exhausted from the desire to get out of this hassle, into which her recently happy life had turned. Pathetic, helpless and lonely. She says that life is over, and lives only by her past, "- this is how contemporaries describe the impressions of meeting her. However, she does not have the opportunity to completely immerse herself in melancholy - she needs to feed the children and the mother. The help of the peasants was of great help: they sometimes brought lard, cereals, carrots - from the latter they brewed tea and warmed themselves with it.

Only in December 1920 did he manage to leave for Petrograd. It gets a little easier. Children go to schools, paintings by Serebryakova participate in exhibitions, sometimes they order portraits of her. But life still passes on the brink of survival. It is surprising that no matter how difficult her life was, her paintings are mostly bright, joyful, although she created the early ones from an excess of joy, and in the later ones she ran away from the difficult reality.

Alexandre Benois procured a free admission to the Mariinsky Theater for his niece. There her daughter Tatyana is engaged, there Zinaida paints her charming ballerinas. In 1923, her works took part in an exhibition of Russian artists held in the USA. She helped out $ 500, but they could not patch the gaps in the family budget. Zinaida decides to leave for Paris to improve her financial situation.

The cage slammed shut

Tatyana Serebryakova recalled that she was 12 years old when her mother left. She left for a short time, but Tate was very scared. As if she had a presentiment that the next time they would be able to see each other only after 36 years.

Contrary to Benois's assurances, the golden rain did not fall on Serebryakova in Paris. Firstly, the avant-garde was in fashion, the values of which she did not share at all, adhering to the classical approach to painting, and secondly, Serebryakova was very awkward in doing business and did not know how to “spin” at all - echoes of the life of a happy woman living with her family and her art. How different this Paris, inhabited by emigrants, was like the city to which she went after the wedding with her husband and mother, pregnant with her eldest son!

The artist Konstantin Somov, who has repeatedly helped Zinaida Serebryakova in Paris, said: "She is so pitiful, unhappy, inept, everyone offends her."... Unsociable in life, in her work, she did not leave direct followers. Contemporaries mention the difficult character of the artist. But we must take into account the circumstances of her life. She did not succeed in earning money in a year, as planned. “Nobody understands that it is insanely difficult to start without a penny. And time passes, and I fight in the same place "- she writes to her mother in despair. She misses her children a lot. Soon it was possible to write Katya to her place, in 1927 Sasha also came. And then the iron curtain falls.

Serebryakova does not dare to return, because her two children are in Paris, and she does not risk taking them to the USSR, where they can be declared "enemies of the people". In Paris, she cannot fully engage in a new life, because half of her heart remained there - with Zhenya, Tanya and her mother, whom the government refuses to release abroad.

At the slightest opportunity, Serebryakova sends them money, but this is not always possible. In 1933, her mother died of hunger in the Union.

The brightest event of this "life after life" for Zinaida Serebryakova was, perhaps, a trip to Morocco. The Belgian Baron Brower saw her paintings at one of the exhibitions and offered to pay for the trip so that he could pick up any pictures he liked from the paintings written there. In 1928 and 1932, Zinaida traveled to Morocco. Subsequently, she will write to her daughter Tatyana: “In general, 34 years of life here - one vanity, one nervousness and despair ... But what about an artist to create without 'joyful excitement'? Here is perhaps one month spent in Morocco in 1928, and then a month and a half there they completely captured me with their immediate living beauty ... "

It was only during the Khrushchev thaw, in 1960, that Tatyana, and a few years later, his son Yevgeny, were able to come to his mother. And six years later - to organize her exhibition in Moscow. The success was deafening! But Serebryakova herself did not dare to come to the USSR. And age made itself felt, and to return to the place where she was once very happy, knowing that those places no longer exist, not everyone can afford.

Zinaida Lancere, by her husband Serebryakov, was born near Kharkov. She was destined to give birth to four children, become a widow, change Kharkov to Petrograd, and then to Paris, and there to calm down at the Saint-Genevieve-des-Bois cemetery.

She was born and raised in a family where more than one generation worshiped art. Great-great-grandfather Caterino Cavos - originally from Italy, musician, author of operas, symphonies; great-grandfather, Albert Kavos - architect; his own grandfather - Nikolai Benois - an architect, academician. Zinaida's father is the famous sculptor Nikolai Lansere.

After the death of her father, Zina lived with her grandfather, Nicholas Benois, where a creative atmosphere reigned, and the atmosphere of the house was permeated with the spirit of art. The dining room was decorated with paintings painted by her mother, a student of the Academy of Arts. The rooms were furnished with antique furniture made by old masters. Famous people gathered in the house: Bakst, Somov, Diaghilev and others.

Since childhood, Zina herself loved to draw. She did not thoroughly study drawing anywhere: only two months in a private drawing school under the guidance of I. Repin, for two years she studied in the studio of O.E. Braz. But she was so good at learning, absorbing everything useful, and already at the age of 17 she easily learned to work with watercolors in two or three colors, to achieve purity and beauty of tone.

For health reasons, in 1901 she was taken to Italy, where she enthusiastically and a lot painted mountain landscapes with rich vegetation, the sea with coastal stones, narrow, sun-drenched streets, houses, interiors of rooms.

In 1905, Zina married a railway engineer Serebryakov and went with him on a honeymoon trip to Paris. There she entered a school-workshop, where she worked hard, imitated the Impressionists. But besides the streets and houses of Paris, she was interested in the life of the peasants, she sketched cattle, carts, sheds.

Returning to Moscow, Zinaida writes a lot, especially loves to paint portraits. In magazines they began to say about her that she had a "big, colorful temperament." She began to exhibit among already famous painters, and she was noticed. Later A. Benois wrote about the exhibition of Serebryakova's works: "... she gave the Russian public such a wonderful gift, such a" big smile "that one cannot but thank her ..."

In Serebryakova's paintings, complete spontaneity and simplicity, true artistic temperament, something sonorous, young, laughing, sunny and clear were noted. All her works are striking with vitality, innate skill. And the village guys, and students, and rooms, and fields - everything with Serebryakova comes out bright, living its own life and sweet.

Before the First World War, the artist visited Italy, Switzerland, where she painted many landscapes. She returned home in the summer of 1914, where she was greeted by gloomy and confused male faces, wailing soldiers and roaring girls.

In 1916, Alexander Benois was offered the painting of the Kazan railway station in Moscow, then he attracted recognized masters to work - Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, Boris Kustodiev, and Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova was among these chosen ones.

In 1918, the Neskuchnoye estate, where the Serebryakovs lived, burned down. The family moved to Kharkov. Boris Anatolyevich, Zinaida's husband, contracted typhus in 1919 and died.

The Serebryakovs lived poorly, sometimes on the verge of poverty. The artist was forced to earn extra money drawing visual aids. A joyless life dragged on. Then the Serebryakovs moved to St. Petersburg, settled in the empty apartment of N.L. Benois's grandfather. At least somehow to live, the artist enters the service in the workshop of visual aids for a beggarly salary.

Meanwhile, in 1924 in America there was an exhibition of Serebryakova, at which about 150 paintings were sold. In the meantime, it was a lot of money, especially in the destroyed Land of the Soviets. Alexander Benois, who settled in Paris with his family, called them to them. Moreover, she received an order for a panel from Paris. What will a mother of four children living in the "restricted to travel" Soviet Union do? Leave them and rush to France? Or will he stay with them? In addition to the children, Serebryakova still has a sick mother in her arms. Livelihood - zero.

Serebryakova decided to go. Biographers say: "Subsequently, she repented and wanted to return to Russia, even in the USSR. But she did not succeed." But why failed? Or did you not want to? For example, Marina Tsvetaeva succeeded. Zinaida Serebryakova - no. Although her older brother, Yevgeny Lansere, a Soviet professor, came to her in France. He worked in Tbilisi and was sent to Paris by the decision of the Georgian People's Commissariat for Education. They managed to send two children to her in France, two more remained in Russia - Serebryakova will see one of her daughters only 36 years later, during the Khrushchev thaw.

France did not bring Serebryakova happiness. There was little money, she lived an almost poverty-stricken life. I sent a penny to the children. And she very much regretted her decision to leave Russia. And the creativity of the period of emigration was not so bright, splashing colors, temperament. All the best remained at home.

Biography of Zinaida Evgenievna Serebryakova

(1884-1967)

Zinaida owes her artistic development primarily to her uncle Alexander Benois, her mother's brother and older brother.

The artist spent her childhood and youth in St. Petersburg in the house of her grandfather, architect N. L. Benois and in the estate "Neskuchny". Zinaida's attention was always attracted by the work of young peasant girls in the field. Subsequently, this will be reflected more than once in her work.