Zinaida Serebriakova's Life and Art

The tragic biographical details of Zinaida Serebriakova’s life are veiled behind the opulent and luscious femininity of her neoclassical canvases.

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Her life was split into two parts. The first (prior to the Revolution) was filled with love, motherhood and art for the sake of art; The second (after the death of her husband and her departure to France) – with loss, struggle and loneliness.

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Her early works, such as her self-portrait “At the Dressing-Table” were intimate and carefree. Married, in love and a young mother of four, she enjoyed the privilege and financial stability of being born into one of the most prominent and affluent Russian families – the Benois clan of the famous musicians, architects and artists. She painted because she could and her canvases absorbed her serene happiness.

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“At Breakfast” is one of the first works that bears signs of foreboding. At first glance, it is just a portrait of her three children – Evgenyi, Shura and Tata. But the eyes of Shura and Tata grab hold of us and don’t let go. There is something deeply troubling in their apprehension and sadness. The hands of the grandmother, clad in black, mundanely serving soup heighten the sense of looming tragedy. This tragedy was WWI. The painting was completed in December of 1914.

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The “House of Cards” depicts all four children, building a fragile house of cards with detachment and sadness. Their father, Boris Serebriakov, was arrested in 1918 by Bolsheviks, contracted spotted fever and died in 1919 in Zinaida’s arms. As a single mother, in a country ravaged by the Revolution, Zinaida struggled to survive. In 1924 she decided to travel to France to complete an important art commission. She left her 74 year old mother and four children in Soviet Russia. She was only able to be reunited with two of her children. She would see Tata 36 later and her son Evgenyi 43 years later, in 1967, just a few months before her death.

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Self-portrait, c. 1920, Private collection