Russian Painting. Peter Leek

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      This accuracy was also evident in Lady in Blue, on which Konstantin Somov worked from 1897 to 1900. He achieves its effects by an unexpected synthesis of realism and stylization. The delicate beauty of the model – the artist Elizaveta Martynova, who died soon after this portrait was painted – appears all the more lifelike because of the artificial pose and scenery, and the old-fashioned dress that Somov asked her to wear. In contrast, the sketch of the poet Zinaida Hippius by Leon Bakst – who produced spectacular costume designs – is uncontrived and naturalistic. Philip Maliavin painted portraits of several of the World of Art painters, such as Somov and Grabar, that convey their character and characteristics with great insight and sensitivity.

      From the first decade of the twentieth century onwards, “expressive” use of colour became more prevalent in Russian portraiture and figure painting – as, for example, in Ilya Mashkov’s Artist’s Model. It is also exhibited in Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin’s Portrait of the poet Anna Akhmatova, and furthermore in Martiros Saryan’s portraits of his family and Victoria Alabian.

      Further examples of this “expressive” use of colour are demonstrated by artists such as Saryan, Surikov, Vrubel, Petrov-Vodkin, Robert Falk and Mikhaïl Nesterov who all painted remarkable self-portraits. Among the canvases that Nesterov created in the 1930s was his double portrait of the painters Pavel and Alexeï Korin, which, unlike most of his works from the post-Revolutionary period, echoes his earlier Symbolist style. In terms of style, Vrubel’s portraits, like Nesterov’s, vary enormously. They range from the sober and conventional – for example, the portrait of Konstantin Artsybushev that he painted in 1897 – to highly decorative works such as Girl Against a Persian Carpet, which is both a sensitive portrait of a child and an inspired exploration of pattern and colour.