Pieter Lategan Title: Redraw of Valentin Serov Self Portrait

Medium: A4 Paper HB Pencil

I slept till one this afternoon and have to start working now.  I am going to continue with the self portrait and hopefully will be done to put it on tonight.

This is a redraw of a self portrait of Valentin Serov a Russian painter (1865–1911).

His greatest work was the portraits: The Girl in Peaches. In these paintings, he concentrated on the spontaneity of perception of the model and nature.   In the development of light and color, the complex harmony the features of early Russian impressionism.

Girl with Peaches

Valentin Serov

Date: 1887

Style: Impressionism

Genre: portrait

Media: oil, canvas

This painting is considered to be one of Serov’s greatest works and one of his famous.

The painting depicts 12-year-old Vera Mamontova, a daughter of Russian entrepreneur and patron of the arts Savva Mamontov.

It was painted at Abramtsevo, an estate not far from Moscow in the summer of 1887. It was a comfortable place for artists not only to gather and discuss important topics but to live and create.

The job was not easy for him and took him three months to complete.  The painting is so penetrated by lightness, airiness, and light that it seems that it was created in one breath.  Vera seems to be sitting still, and carefully looking at the viewer.

Valentin knew Vera from her babyhood and frequently visited Mamontov’s Abramtsevo estate, sometimes even lived there for lengthy periods of time.

From 1890 on, the portrait became the basic genre in Serov’s art.  It was in this field that his early style would become apparent, the paintings notable for the psychologically pointed characteristics (personality psychology is the study of personality and its variation among individuals.) of his subjects.  Serov’s favorite models were actors, artists, and writers.

So what do I think about my own work?

It was hard to redraw it and took me a while, the lines were thick and I used an HB Pencil.  I think he did it with charcoal.  My knowledge of charcoal sketches is very limited.

Sources

https://en.opisanie-kartin.com/description-of-the-painting-by-valentin-serov-girl-with-peaches/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Serov

https://www.wikiart.org/en/valentin-serov/girl-with-peaches-1887#!#supersized-artistPaintings-237456