Valentin Alexandrovich Serov

Winter Landscape demonstrates the full extent of Serov’s exceptional draughtsmanship, which the artist’s first biographer, Igor Grabar, placed on the same footing as Serov’s mastery in painting. In Grabar’s opinion, there were only two equally passionate and inexorable draughtsmen in the history of 19th-century Russian art: Serov and Repin, with Serov adopting his teacher’s passion for drawing and going on to develop his own, inimitable style (I.Grabar, Serov-risovalshchik, Moscow, 1965).

In its delicate, poetic rendering of the Russian countryside in winter, animated, as is often the case with Serov's landscapes, by the inclusion of people and animals, the present lot evokes some of the best-known examples of the artist’s work in the genre, including A Road in Winter, Domotkanovo (1904, Ryazan State Regional Art Museum) and Yearling Colts by a Watering Place (1904, State Tretyakov Gallery). Both works depict the views surrounding the Domotkanovo estate in the Tver region, which belonged to Serov’s lifelong friend, watercolour artist Vladimir von Derviz (1859-1937), and where the artist often stayed both alone and with his family. It is highly probable that the present scene was also either painted at or inspired by the artist’s beloved location. 

Winter Landscape is, equally, an outstanding example of Serov’s mature style. It exemplifies his evolution, as noted by the art historian Maria Ivanova, from highly detailed, naturalistic landscapes towards scenes defined by a greater economy of artistic means, where several lines and colour spots masterfully outline the composition and convey the overall mood (M.Ivanova, ‘Valentin Serov. Liniya zhizni’, Tretyakovskaya galereya, No.1 (34), 2012).

The present work comes from the personal collection of Alexander Alexandrovich Popov, an active member of the Russian émigré community in Paris after the Revolution and founder of the prominent Galerie Popoff, which, although mainly specialising in French and German art, also promoted the work of Russian artists.