“Portrait of Katya N.” from the collection of Volzhsk Art Gallery was painted by the artist Valentina Kosmina in 1957. Against the background of a dark red piece of cloth, she portrayed an aged woman wearing a wide ornamented kerchief.
The head is portrayed in a three-quarter profile. Her eyes, nose and lips, as well as the tone of her skin, are meticulously rendered. Valentina Kosmina achieved the necessary volume through the shift from cold colors to warm ones, without using any shadows or highlights. That method was typical for her paintings.
The woman’s hair and shoulders are covered with a tightly wrapped dark purple kerchief. Its floral ornament is performed in multi-colored, broad brush strokes. The color range of this kerchief includes contrasting opalescent-gray, olive, gold, lilac, deep emerald-black, and pistachio shades.
Valentina Kosmina was born on April 17, 1895, in St. Petersburg. She got academic education, graduating from the School of The Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (nowadays known as the St. Petersburg Art School) and then from the Central School for Technical Draftsmanship (nowadays known as The Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design).
Valentina Kosmina started participating in Moscow, Leningrad and the Far East exhibitions in 1936. She joined the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1945.
Kosmina created still-life paintings, landscapes and portraits. She spent all her long artistic life in Moscow, where she died in 1981. After her death, the collectors accidentally came across a lot of Valentina Kosmina’s paintings and drawings.
The head is portrayed in a three-quarter profile. Her eyes, nose and lips, as well as the tone of her skin, are meticulously rendered. Valentina Kosmina achieved the necessary volume through the shift from cold colors to warm ones, without using any shadows or highlights. That method was typical for her paintings.
The woman’s hair and shoulders are covered with a tightly wrapped dark purple kerchief. Its floral ornament is performed in multi-colored, broad brush strokes. The color range of this kerchief includes contrasting opalescent-gray, olive, gold, lilac, deep emerald-black, and pistachio shades.
Valentina Kosmina was born on April 17, 1895, in St. Petersburg. She got academic education, graduating from the School of The Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (nowadays known as the St. Petersburg Art School) and then from the Central School for Technical Draftsmanship (nowadays known as The Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design).
Valentina Kosmina started participating in Moscow, Leningrad and the Far East exhibitions in 1936. She joined the Union of Artists of the USSR in 1945.
Kosmina created still-life paintings, landscapes and portraits. She spent all her long artistic life in Moscow, where she died in 1981. After her death, the collectors accidentally came across a lot of Valentina Kosmina’s paintings and drawings.
