Portrait of Maxim Gorky. Valentin Serov

Each work of Valentin Serov has his own unique "character". He worked in most cases in the genre of neoclassicism and used only oil for his paintings. Because of this, his images on the canvas did not have clear lines, but there were plenty of different color shades and transitions. Maxim Gorky's portrait was also no exception, but in it the artist preferred to use a small variety of colors, he used mostly dark tones.

Further in the article we will consider in more detail, what techniques the painter turned to, in order to fully convey the image of the writer.

Creative revolutionary

Peshkov Alexey Maksimovich (real name Gorky) was born on March 28, 1868 in the city of Nizhny Novgorod in a military family. The mother was of a philistine family, she was widowed early, since Father Maxim Savvateevich died of cholera. This loss greatly impressed little Alyosha, because they were the closest people and spent a lot of time together. Therefore, in time, already in his teens, Alexei Peshkov took a pseudonym - Maxim Gorky - in honor of his father.

After a while, my mother also passed away because of a long illness.

At the age of 11, the young writer remained completely alone, worked as a dishwasher, baker and so on.

By the late 1980s Peshkov Alexei Maximovich entered the Kazan University, where he first met Marxist literature, and there he began writing propaganda materials.

In 1892 he published his first work "Makar Chudra" and, returning to his native Nizhny Novgorod, begins to cooperate with local publications, where he promotes his creations. Since 1917, he has been active in political and revolutionary activity, advocating for the old intelligentsia, condemning the methods of the Bolsheviks.

Soon Gorky seriously ill, on the orders of Lenin, he is sent for treatment abroad. Ten years later, namely by 1932, he returned to the USSR, after which he continued to publish. His works are devoted to revolutionary actions and the First World War.

Before his death, Maxim Gorky's last novel, The Life of Klim Samgin, is published. After a while he dies.

The great master of portraits

Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov, Russian painter, was born on January 19, 1865 in St. Petersburg. His family was creative, his father and mother were composers. They were able to instill in the little boy a love of art.

He had to say goodbye to the head of the family early, his father died when the boy was only 5 years old. Soon they moved with their mother to Munich, where the young man, Valentin Alexandrovich, received the entire knowledge base, which he needed as an artist.

In 1879 Valentin and his mother returned to Moscow, where the great painter began to work actively. Later, traveling to different cities and countries, he admitted that his main passion is to draw from nature.

Before Maxim Gorky's portrait was written, a long time passed, and Valentin Sergeyevich had a considerable portfolio. He could paint everything he sees, and his nature was quite different, both noble people and ordinary passers-by. For him it was the main thing to feel the soul and energy of the person whom he is painting, and then the painting received unusual contrasting color solutions.

Dynamic accents

Unrivaled Russian neoclassic Valentin Serov - an artist with a capital letter, because his work is built on the character of the person who is sitting in front of him. Portraits in the period of revolutionary activity are significantly different from those that he wrote at the end of the 19th century.

The writer Maxim Gorky appeared before him in a very strict form and in dark clothes, which could not help but stop his gaze. The whole portrait is permeated with the spirit of the revolution, and the spirit of rebellion and coup d'etat directly permeates it. In order to convey this unusual image, Serov turns to new techniques and builds an atypical composition. He refuses unnecessary details of the interior and puts a light background.

Strict image

The writer himself was also presented without any unnecessary details in his clothes: a simple dark shirt and trousers tucked into boots. It seems that Gorky with someone who is outside the canvas, is in dialogue, this is indicated by a distant and stern look. A raised right hand shows the gesture of a person struggling for their rights and vigorously defending them.

The colors are chosen harmoniously, the light background and dark silhouette of the writer "play" with each other, creating a symphony of colors and revolutionary energy.

Gorky Maxim's portrait opened the painter in an unusual role, created a new page in his creative biography.

An unusual technique of applying paints

Looking at this image of the writer, you can see not only that he is trying to show his rightness, but you can see a number of some kind of humanistic and philosophical reflections.

Valentin Serov - an artist who was able to convey these complex moments through the prism of painting, using the usual panel and paint. The portrait is very simple, and the creator used mostly runaway strokes, without resorting to excessive shades in the color "sections".

The silhouette of the writer is depicted rather large, and the impression of the "immensity" of the figure for the canvas appears, and it seems that he is about to move beyond the picture.

Unforgettable history

Maxim Gorky's portrait is a kind of experiment where the author tried to convey emotions, the spirit of the era and the position of his nature.

These bound movements of the writer, who want to go abroad, show his assertive personality, and a piercing look is a mirror of all those actions that he conducted in favor of his country, saving the old intelligentsia from the repression of the Bolsheviks.

This portrait in Russian painting shows that revolutionary era, which should not be forgotten, because in the past there is a pledge of a beautiful future.

A mysterious image of an unsurpassed Russian artist is kept in the Maxim Gorky museum-museum in Moscow, where everything is permeated with the spirit of that time, since there are still objects of his life there.