Aleksandra Alekseeva Venetsianova (1816 - 1882) "Portrait of a Young Woman", 1845

Oil on canvas. Signed in Cyrillic and dated "1845" on the right side. On the frame is inscribed in Cyrillic, above, "1845, 12 December" and at the bottom "Venetsianova Ad. Al. 1816 - 1875".

The present portrait of a young woman is surrounded by simplicity and lyricism, typical of the works and paintings of peasant women by Aleksei Venetsianov (1780 - 1847), her father and teacher. It is a portrait of a young woman, purely intimate, wrapped in a flowing dress, in a state of contemplation and looking directly at the viewer. The face, whose features are drawn with inconstant strokes, is impregnated with a certain melancholy and denotes a serene moral purity. It recalls the images of Madonnas of the Quattrocento or the first Russian icons.

Size: 30.5 x 26 cm 

Provenance: Acquired in New York in the 1970s. Passed on by descent.

Literature: Auction catalog. Bonhams, "The Russian sale," June 8, 2009, London. Lot 9; pg. 12.

Notes:

Aleksandra Alekseeva Venetsianova (1816-1882) was the daughter of the celebrated Russian artist Aleksei Venetsianov (1780 - 1847), considered the founder of the "Russian genre". In the early 1820s he founded an academy in his native village of Safonkovo where he formed a school of painters, among them, he took his daughter as an apprentice. Her style was very close to her father's, in her works she depicted still lives and peasant scenes: harvests, care of the land and maternity. He inherited from his father his lyrical and individual approach, combined with a romantic expression of human feelings. Because very few works by this artist are preserved, they are sought after by Russian art collections.