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| Tsar Nicholas II 1900 |
Time has now run out for anyone who, like me, would have liked
to have caught the major exhibition marking the 150th anniversary of
the birth of the Russian artist, Valentin Serov (1865-1911) at the Tretyakov
Gallery in Moscow.
The show finishes tomorrow and Russian newspapers have been
reporting today that Muscovites have been queuing up in sub zero temperatures to see the show before it
ends.
Serov, who combined the Russian realist tradition with
elements of art nouveau, was one of the leading portraitists at the turn of the
20th Century. He also painted
landscapes and scenes from Russian History, including a wonderful image of
Peter the Great striding about in his unfinished city of St Petersburg (below).
How I would like to have gone to the exhibition! However, it is much less easy to go to Russia
these days. Visa complications apart,
relations with the UK have now plumbed further depths on account of
yesterday’s shocking report about the death from polonium poisoning of
Alexander Litvinenko in London. Consequently, an English
traveller may not enjoy the customary warm welcome, even from ‘ordinary Russians’
at present.
Given Russia's problems these days, some people
find it strange that I still maintain my enthusiasm for all things
Russian. It is important to realise
however that the country is not the Government, and also to hope that, against
the tide of history, things may one day change in this most fascinating of
places.
Meanwhile, keep watching War and Peace!
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| Peter the Great, 1907. Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. |
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