An oil portrait of Sergey Sergeyev-Tsensky, depicting him at the age of 29, was painted by his friend Mikhail Ivanovich Sapozhnikov, an artist and drawing teacher from Pavlograd. Sapozhnikov’s summer house in Alushta was next door to Sergeyev-Tsensky’s plot of land.
Ilya Repin admired the appearance of Sergeyev-Tsensky in a letter to Korney Chukovsky, saying, “Absalom’s mane and the face of a Cossack — marvelous!” The artist regretted not painting a portrait of Sergeyev-Tsensky when the two met in person in the winter of 1909–1910. In the same letter, Repin expressed his wish,
Portrait of Sergey Sergeyev-Tsensky
Creation period
1904
Place of сreation
the Russian Empire
Dimensions
53,5x43 cm
Technique
canvas, oil
Collection
0
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#3
I hope that one day I will paint that piercingly stunning brunette with a curly papakha of his karakul hair and those glittering carbon-black eyes… boring into you with their prophetic and scorching truth.
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Unfortunately, this would never come true. On September 29, 1930, Korney Chukovsky visited Sergey Sergeyev-Tsensky and they talked a lot about Ilya Repin, the Penates, and Kuokkala. It was a day of sharing memories of their great contemporary. Sergeyev-Tsensky wrote,
#5
On that beautiful autumn day, which smelled of yellowing vine leaves and cypress resin, we suddenly began to share memories of Repin! Korney Ivanovich [Chukovsky] visited Repin sometime in the 1920s and was now filled with impressions from that trip to Kuokkala and the Penates, and I, of course, was interested in every smallest detail, as long as it was about Ilya Yefimovich [Repin].
#6
A few days later, when Chukovsky had already gone away, Sergeyev-Tsensky learned that Repin had died the very day they talked about him. Sergeyev-Tsensky wrote about this,
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It was as though the two of us on that day were sitting beside the man we loved so much during his lifetime as he lay dying.
#8
The communication between Sergey Sergeyev-Tsensky and Ilya Repin was remarkably sincere and humorous. Throughout his life, Sergeyev-Tsensky was proud to have met Ilya Repin. He admired him for being a brilliant artist and also for his generous and patriotic nature. Despite the brief period of their face-to-face meetings (limited to 1909–1910), this was a true friendship between two creative souls.
#9
Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
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Portrait of Sergey Sergeyev-Tsensky
Creation period
1904
Place of сreation
the Russian Empire
Dimensions
53,5x43 cm
Technique
canvas, oil
Collection
0
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