The black ink silhouette portrait of Ivan Goncharov was created by a Russian painter Elizaveta Boehm in 1886. The writer is depicted in his study sitting next to a bureau. A journalist Semyon Spitzer recalled that this portrait, together with the photograph of Goncharov and the painting by Nikolay Maykov, used to be in Goncharov’s apartment on Mokhovaya Street in Saint Petersburg.
Elizaveta Boehm was well acquainted with Ivan Goncharov. His adopted daughter Alexandra Treygut recalled that it was Boehm who brought her and Alexander Rezvetsov together, and she was also the one to give Treygut away at the wedding ceremony. Goncharov and Boehm were also known to exchange gifts: the writer presented her with the editions of his novels, while Boehm gave him her illustrated books.
Elizaveta Boehm, née Endaurova, descended from a family of a Tatar origin. According to a family legend, before becoming Endaurovs, they were known as Indigirs. Their surname was changed due to the special decree issued by the Russian Tsar Ivan III.
Boehm was born in Saint Petersburg to a family of an officer and a high-ranking official’s daughter in 1843. She spent her childhood in the estate of her parents located in the Yaroslavl Governorate, where she learned to paint. At the age of 14, she entered the School of Painting at the Society for Promotion of Artists and graduated with the Large Silver Medal. In 1867, she married a prominent Russian-Hungarian violinist Ludwig Boehm. She never stopped painting, even after her daughter was born.
In the late 1880s, Elizaveta Boehm’s eyesight began to deteriorate. By the mid-1890, the painter decided to give up the silhouette technique which caused too much strain on her eyes. Watercolors, however, remained a part of her artwork while she continued creating postcards and sketches for glass and porcelain painting.
Elizaveta Boehm was well acquainted with Ivan Goncharov. His adopted daughter Alexandra Treygut recalled that it was Boehm who brought her and Alexander Rezvetsov together, and she was also the one to give Treygut away at the wedding ceremony. Goncharov and Boehm were also known to exchange gifts: the writer presented her with the editions of his novels, while Boehm gave him her illustrated books.
Elizaveta Boehm, née Endaurova, descended from a family of a Tatar origin. According to a family legend, before becoming Endaurovs, they were known as Indigirs. Their surname was changed due to the special decree issued by the Russian Tsar Ivan III.
Boehm was born in Saint Petersburg to a family of an officer and a high-ranking official’s daughter in 1843. She spent her childhood in the estate of her parents located in the Yaroslavl Governorate, where she learned to paint. At the age of 14, she entered the School of Painting at the Society for Promotion of Artists and graduated with the Large Silver Medal. In 1867, she married a prominent Russian-Hungarian violinist Ludwig Boehm. She never stopped painting, even after her daughter was born.
The technique of a silhouette portrait was common in Elizaveta Boehm’s artwork. She used the lithography method, where the mirror image print was first drawn with a wax crayon and ink onto the surface of a smooth stone plate, and then transferred to a blank paper sheet. This very technique was used while creating Goncharov’s portrait, as well as many others, including the illustrations for the Russian folktale “The Gigantic Turnip”, the cycle of short stories “A Sportsman’s Sketches” by Ivan Turgenev, and the fables by Ivan Krylov.
In the late 1880s, Elizaveta Boehm’s eyesight began to deteriorate. By the mid-1890, the painter decided to give up the silhouette technique which caused too much strain on her eyes. Watercolors, however, remained a part of her artwork while she continued creating postcards and sketches for glass and porcelain painting.
