Portrait of the Artist Konstantin Korovin

Portrait of the Artist Konstantin Korovin (1891), at the Tretyakov Gallery, is a portrait by one leading Russian Impressionist of another — a documentation of a deep artistic friendship and a mutual recognition of shared aesthetic values. Konstantin Korovin (1861–1939) was Serov's closest friend and fellow student under Ilya Repin and Pavel Chistyakov; both men became the leading figures of Russian Impressionism and both participated in the Abramtsevo circle around Savva Mamontov. Korovin went on to a distinguished career as painter, set designer for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, and ultimately as an émigré artist in Paris after 1917. Serov's portrait of Korovin captures the two men at the beginning of their mature careers, both having recently completed their training and begun to establish independent artistic identities. The Tretyakov Gallery, which holds canonical works by both painters, provides the ideal institutional context for this document of Russian art historical friendship. The portrait is notable for its psychological intimacy — the easy confidence of depicting a friend rather than a patron.

Oil on canvas with the directness and intimacy characteristic of artist-to-artist portraiture. Serov employs a relatively loose, informal handling appropriate to depicting a creative colleague in the ease of friendship rather than the formality of a commission. The palette and brushwork show both painters' shared aesthetic commitments to Impressionist light and color.