Boris Kustodiev painted the portrait of his daughter Irina with the dog Shumka in 1907. The girl in the picture is two years old. In her memoirs, the adult Irina Kustodieva wrote:
Portrait of Irina Kustodieva
Creation period
1907
Dimensions
100x80 cm
Technique
Canvas, oil
Collection
Exhibition
19
Open in app#3
Kustodiev Boris
Portrait of Irina Kustodieva with Her Dog Shumka
#4
‘In 1907 my portrait with the dog Shumka was also painted in Terem. Shumka lived there constantly and Dad took him hunting. When Dad was painting the portrait, they tied Shumka to chairs with straps and he slept sitting in that position. Mom would read fairy-tales to me till she got hoarse in the throat. In winter, Shumka was killed by wolves; we remembered him long and grieved over his sad end…’.
#2
Irina was her father’s favorite model. The artist portrayed her almost every day, but almost all the sketches perished later. Boris Kustodiev drew his daughter’s first portrait when she was four hours old. The artist’s wife Yulia Kustodieva wrote: “He takes Irina to the forest in a mushroom basket, and explains to our son the variable beauty of the clouds…”. The painter worked on his daughter’s last image the day before his death, on 25 May 1927.
#5
The whole picture is permeated with a dazzlingly bright light. The artist chose warm colors and light palette. Beige parquet, white cupboard walls in the background, the figure of the main character, everything in the portrait is saturated with the caressing summer sun. Using pastel shades and chiaroscuro effects, Boris Kustodiev managed to capture a generalized image of a joyful, happy childhood.
#6
Boris Kustodiev was born in 1878 in Astrakhan. The future artist’s father, a teacher in a theological seminary, died a year after his birth. Besides Boris, there were three more children in the family. The widow could not afford their education, but Boris Kustodiev was lucky: he was accepted to theological seminary at public cost, in memory of his deceased father.
#7
Boris Kustodiev began taking painting lessons from Peter Vlasov, a graduate of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. The teacher prepared him for admission to this educational institution, and in 1896 Kustodiev was enrolled in the academy, where Ilya Repin became his teacher.
#8
Boris Kustodiev went down the history of art with his colorful bright canvases that celebrate the joy of life. The artist often lacked this joy in reality. He suffered the death of his beloved younger son, an early illness and life in a wheelchair. Singer Fyodor Chaliapin wrote about him:
“In my life, I knew a lot of interesting, talented and good people. But if I have ever seen a really high spirit in a man, it”s in Kustodiev. The greatness of his moral strength that cannot be called otherwise than heroic and valiant, this cannot be spoken of without emotion”.
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Portrait of Irina Kustodieva
Creation period
1907
Dimensions
100x80 cm
Technique
Canvas, oil
Collection
Exhibition
19
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