The self-portrait At the Dressing-Table, completed in 1909 during a snowbound winter at a family estate, propelled Zinaida Serebryakova to public attention. This work was soon acquired for the Tretyakov Gallery, establishing her position within the Russian art scene at the dawn of the twentieth century, long before political turmoil necessitated her permanent relocation to France.
Artistic Foundations
Born Zinaida Lansere in 1884 at Neskuchne, she emerged from a lineage deeply rooted in creative practice. Her father was the sculptor Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Lansere, and her family environment included connections to architect Nicholas Benois and painter Alexandre Benois. Following her father's death in 1886, she moved to Saint Petersburg. Her formal training included study under Osip Braz and time at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris from 1905 to 1906, where she analyzed the techniques of Antoine Watteau and the Impressionists.
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The October Revolution of 1917 brought significant disruption to her life. Her estate was destroyed in 1918, and her husband Boris Serebriakov died of typhus in 1919. Faced with poverty and the responsibility of four children, she pivoted from oil painting to charcoal and pencil, documenting the austere conditions of her household in the work House of Cards. She eventually moved to Petrograd in 1920, where she found work at the Kharkov Archaeological Museum and produced studies of theatre life and ballet.
Exile and Later Years
A commission for a large mural drew her to Paris in 1924, an opportunity that resulted in an unintended permanent separation from her homeland. While she later successfully brought two of her children to France, she remained distanced from her other family members for decades. During this period, she traveled to Morocco, producing over 130 portraits and cityscapes, and executed a series focused on Breton fishermen. She attained French citizenship in 1947 and eventually reconnected with her family during the Khrushchev Thaw, leading to major exhibitions in the Soviet Union in 1966 shortly before her death in Paris in 1967.
Fast facts
- Born: 1884, Neskuchne
- Died: 1967, Paris
- Education: Académie de la Grande Chaumière
- Movement: Impressionism
- Primary Occupations: Artist, painter
- Burial site: Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois Russian Cemetery
- Citizenship: French, Soviet, Russian Empire
Questions readers ask
Where is most of her work located?
While her work gained significant recognition in the Soviet Union during the 1966 exhibitions, the majority remains in France.
Did she return to the Soviet Union after 1924?
She did not return to the Soviet Union after leaving for Paris in 1924, though she did resume contact with her family there in 1960.
Achievements
- Movement: Impressionism
