Portrait of Vera Repin

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Portrait of Vera Repin (Marianne von Werefkin)
Portrait of Vera Repin
Marianne von Werefkin , 1881
Oil on canvas
89.6 x 58.3 cm
Murnau Castle Museum

“Portrait of Vera Repin” is today's title of a painting that the Russian artist Marianne von Werefkin painted in 1881. The work is owned by the private foundation Schloßmuseum Murnau (PSM). It is on loan in Murnau's Castle Museum and bears the inventory number 11664.

Technique, dimensions, signature and dating

The painting is an oil painting on canvas , 89.6 × 58.3 cm. The picture is signed lower right in Cyrillic script and dated “18 3 / V 81” (May 3, 1881).

iconography

Depicted is Vera Alexejewna Repina (1855–1917), Repin's first wife until 1887. She was the daughter of the architect Alexei Ivanovich Shevtsov , "a member of the architecture academy in Petersburg". Repin met his wife in 1865 when she was "still a little girl." In 1872 he married the Petersburg woman . At the time Werefkin portrayed Repin's wife, she was the mother of three children.

Rembrandt time

For comparison: Ilja Repin : Wera Repina , 1878

The twenty-one year old artist depicted Vera Repina sitting as a knee . It comes from her realistic painting period, when she was generally called “the Russian Rembrandt .” She was trained in the Russian realistic painting of his time, which is based on the chiaroscuro of the Dutch and Spanish oriented. While Jawlensky still practiced drawing as a beginner, Werefkin's detailed, realistic portraiture was valued in higher circles.

In her painting, Werefkin tried to capture Vera Repina as close to life as possible. She is sitting in three-quarter profile in front of a poorly differentiated background. She is dressed in a brown skirt and a dark blue top without a pattern with long sleeves. Only their ends have simple red decorations. The composition is characterized by a strongly subdued color. The white, semi-transparent tulle shoulder scarf differs from this. It was tied with a flap at the neck. With her head tilted slightly downwards, the young woman's attention is focused on her knitting. Her dark hair, which is tied in a bun at the back of her head, has fine light reflections.

The artist created a three-dimensional figure by using the modulating "illuminating light" that characterizes realism . The painter illustrated its distinctive features of light and shadow like a textbook on Vera Repina's chin, on her wrist or on the area where her fingers guide the knitting needles. As detailed observations it should be mentioned that in Russia, as in Germany and Austria, it was customary to wear the wedding ring on the right hand, while in most European countries the wedding ring is worn on the left ring finger. A cat with outstretched paws can also be seen on the sitter's lap.

The friendship with Werefkin changed Jawlensky's life

In his memoirs, Jawlensky described his first encounter with Werefkin in St. Petersburg and characterized her painting style at the time: “One day, Rjepin took me to visit his pupil Marianne Werefkin in the Peter and Paul Fortress , whose commander was their father, a high general , was. Rjepin held her in high regard as an artist. He always called her 'Turbaran' . During this time, Werefkin was painting quite large pictures in oil in dark tones and very precisely in shape. This acquaintance should change my life. I became a friend of her, of this clever, ingeniously gifted woman. "

literature

  • Clemens Weiler : Marianne von Werefkin. In exh. Cat .: Marianne Werefkin 1860–1938. Municipal Museum Wiesbaden 1958, no p.
  • Bernd Fäthke: Marianne Werefkin, life and work. Munich 1988, p. 14 f, b / w-fig. 4th
  • Bernd Fäthke: Marianne Werefkin. Munich 2001, p. 23 f, color illus. 27, ISBN 3-7774-9040-7
  • Bernd Fäthke : Marianne Werefkin: Clemens Weiler's Legacy. In: Marianne Werefkin and the Women Artists in her Circle. (Tanja Malycheva and Isabel Wünsche eds.), Leiden / Boston 2016 (English), pp. 8–19, ISBN 978-9-0043-2897-6 , pp. 8–19, here pp. 14–19; JSTOR 10.1163 / j.ctt1w8h0q1.7

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Until the person depicted was identified, the title of the picture was anonymously “Strickendes Mädchen” .
  2. ↑ The date is composed of Latin letters in combination with the Roman month number "V" in an arrangement similar to a fraction calculation .
  3. ↑ Henk van Os / Sjeng Scheijen (ed.): Ilya Repin, Russia's Secret. Groninger Museum 2001, p. 175.
  4. ↑ Ljubov Zakharenova: Rest, 1882. In: Angelika Wesenberg, Nicole Hartje and Marie Werner (eds.): Ilja Repin, In search of Russia. Exhibition cat .: Berlin 2003, p. 124
  5. ^ Joseph Brodski: Ilja Repin. Leipzig 1981, p. 13
  6. ^ Joseph Brodski: Ilja Repin. Leipzig 1981, p. 13
  7. ↑ Clemens Weiler: Marianne von Werefkin. In exh. Cat .: Marianne Werefkin 1860-1938. Municipal Museum Wiesbaden 1958, no p., (P. 3)
  8. ↑ In her Expressionist phase, Werefkin explained to her colleagues that “illuminating light” was anachronistic. See: Bernd Fäthke: Marianne Werefkin. Munich 2001, p. 66, ISBN 3-7774-9040-7
  9. ↑ Alexej Jawlensky: Memoirs In: Clemens Weiler (ed.), Alexej Jawlensky, Heads-Face-Meditations , Hanau 1970, p. 106