Portrait of Varya Adoratskaya (in Russian: Портрет Вари Адоратской) is a painting created by Nicolai Fechin in the spring of 1914 in Kazan, in the studio of his student Nadezhda Sapozhnikova. The painting belongs to the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan in Kazan and is displayed in the permanent exhibition of the Nicolai Fechin Hall in the National Art Gallery Khazine.Монографический зал Николая Фешина. [Nicolai Fechin's Monographic Hall.] (in Russian). Государственный музей изобразительных искусств Республики Татарстан. 7 December 2018. Archive: 9 December 2018. Art historian A. E. Kuznetsov, in an article about the painting's exhibition at the Moscow gallery Art-Divage, called the canvas one of the most brilliant children's portraits in the history of not only of Russian but also of world art.
The painting belongs to the most significant period – 1914 to 1918 – of Fechin's work, according to G. P. Tuluzakova. During this time, Fechin, choosing the form of interior portraiture, sought to create a generalized, multifaceted image that would synthesize the model's psychological characteristics with her momentary mood or state. Tuluzakova calls Portrait of Varya Adoratskaya "the most complete and perfect form of the image of childhood in Fechin's work". She considers the painting one of the artist's most harmonious creations, clear in thought and construction, and a visiting card of his Russian period.
Children in Nicolai Fechin's work Among Nicolai Fechin's most valued and often invited models were children. In her book on Fechin's work, Galina Tuluzakova contrasts the artist's genre compositions – where he depicted the complexity and contradictions of human nature, far from the ideal qualities inherent in people by nature – with his portraits of children, which, in her words, manifest "his romantic, sublime faith in humanity". In his portraits, Fechin does not distinguish between children from "simple" and "intelligent" families; both groups, in his paintings, epitomize the bright image of childhood. In the works Portrait of a Girl (Vyatka Art Museum named after V. M. and A. M. Vasnetsov), Girl in a Pink Scarf (which was for a long time in the private collection of surgeon-oncologist Academician N. N. Blokhin), Peasant Girl (private collection, USA), Girl (Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, USA), and Katyenka (State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan), the viewer can easily determine that the characters belong to the lower social classes. In the painting Kisa and the portraits of Nina Belkovich and Misha Bardukov, the children are from a different social group, but the artist's attitude toward his subjects does not change.
In his images of children, Fechin emphasizes their openness to the world, vulnerability, and inner purity. At the same time, he approaches childhood seriously – there is no sense of pity in his depictions. Fechin presents children in his paintings according to their age characteristics, capturing the plasticity of their movements, the tenderness of not-yet-fully-formed facial features, their liveliness, restlessness, and occasional spoiling. His portraits are often marked by a contrast in brushstrokes – delicate touches for the face and thicker, more textured strokes for clothing and backgrounds – which is especially noticeable in his portraits of children.
Description
Portrait of Varya Adoratskaya is an oil painting on canvas. The canvas size is 135 × 145 cm (although the exhibition catalog from the Moscow gallery "Art-Divage" lists other dimensions: 138 × 147.2 cm). At the bottom left are the artist's signature and the date of the painting: N. Fechin 1914. The painting is part of the collection of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan in Kazan. The inventory number of the canvas in the collection is Zh-938.Николай Фешин. Каталог выставки произведений Н. И. Фешина в Государственном музее изобразительных искусств Республики Татарстан 22 ноября 2006 — 20 января 2007. Живопись. Графика. Скульптура. Декоративно-прикладное искусство [Nicolai Fechin. Catalogue of the exhibition of works by Nicolai Fechin in the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan 22 November 2006 - 20 January 2007. Painting. Graphics. Sculpture. Decorative and applied art] (in Russian). Казань: Заман. 2006. p. 96. Since 2005, Portrait of Varya Adoratskaya has been exhibited in the Nicolai Fechin Hall on the third floor of the permanent exhibition at the National Art Gallery Khazine.
The portrait depicts a ten-year-old girl sitting on a table among toys and sweets scattered in a picturesque mess. Art historians at the State Russian Museum noted that she "would look like a toy come to life, if it were not for the serious look of a teenager growing up in a non-childish world". The painting continues the tradition of children's imagery, part of which includes Lewis Carroll's Alice (1865) and Vera Mamontova in Valentin Serov's The Girl with Peaches (1887), both of which convey "the happy, carefree nature of childhood".Жизнь девочки с картины. Государственный Русский музей. Дата обращения: 7 December 2018. Archive: 9 December 2018.
The girl's face is depicted in the same color tone as the background but stands out with the more vibrant colors of her hair and eyes. She gazes at the viewer, with the artist placing the main emphasis on the "inquisitive eyes of the child". Fechin portrayed two distinct levels of still life in the painting: fruit on the table and flowers by the window. The background is a gray, monochromatic wall, creating a contrast between flatness and volume. Tuluzakova noted the unity between the figure and the surrounding "accessories" in the painting.
Varvara Adoratskaya, the model
Varvara Vladimirovna Adoratskaya was born in Kazan in 1904. A year later, her father was arrested for revolutionary activities and was first imprisoned, then exiled from the Russian Empire (though the Adoratsky family returned to their homeland briefly in 1907, when a family photo was taken in S. Felzer's studio in Kazan). Varvara and her mother followed her father into exile. The family lived in Switzerland and later in Germany. After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Varvara and her parents were interned.Варвара Владимировна Адоратская (1904–1963). Музей «Дом на Набережной». Дата обращения: 7 December 2018. Archive: 9 December 2018. In 1918, following an exchange proposed by Lenin, the Adoratskys returned to Russia. The family settled in Moscow, where Vladimir Adoratsky began working in the Central State Archive, and Varvara studied at Vkhutemas from 1923 to 1925. The Adoratsky family lived in an apartment in the Government House (also known as the "House on the Embankment"). Varvara's mother was disabled from a young age, having lost her hearing and eyesight, and was barely able to move, so her daughter had to devote herself to caring for her. In her youth, Varvara herself suffered from tuberculosis and Graves' disease, which is presumably what prevented her from completing her university studies.
Varvara was fluent in several languages and worked as a translator at the Marx–Engels–Lenin Institute. She assisted her father with his scientific work, translating for him, typing, and working under his supervision on translations for the Institute (which was renamed from the Marx and Engels Institute after its merger with the Lenin Institute), where her father served as director from 1931 to 1939. After his death, she continued to work at the Institute under contract. Years later, Adoratskaya sought to learn about the fate of Nicolai Fechin, who had emigrated to the United States, through the intermediary of her friends (see V. V. Adoratskaya's letter to N. N. Livanova dated October 20, 1955, in the personal archive of N. M. Valeev). Varvara Adoratskaya died in 1963.
Creation From 1912, Fechin participated in exhibitions of the Society for Travelling Art Exhibitions. Along with realistic portraits by Ilya Repin, Fechin himself, and Sergey Malyutin, salon works were also presented at this time. Fechin passionately painted portraits en plein air. Usually, they were small portraits of the étude type, created in bright sunlight, often against the light. This lighting created a barely noticeable shimmering glow around the subject’s head. Even then, Repin had a high opinion of the work of his former pupil. Later, in 1926, in a conversation with Soviet artists, Repin named Nicolai Fechin among the most interesting contemporary portraitists.
When choosing models, Fechin favored a narrow circle of relatives and close friends. This allowed him to achieve in the portrait “penetrating depth and rare psychological expressiveness". his works possessed "not only external resemblance to the sitter, but also unsurpassed personal characteristics of the people to whom he felt special feelings and affection”. Such is the Portrait of Varya Adoratskaya, the daughter of friends of Fechin's family.
The father of the young model, artist V. V. Adoratsky – an active participant in the revolutionary movement, a member of the RSDLP since 1904, and later a Marxist philosopher and historian – highly appreciated Fechin's paintings and ranked him "no lower than V. Serov". However, Adoratsky did not approve of the fact that the artist often depicted sitters in "contrived poses". According to the memories of V. V. Adoratskaya, the portrait was painted in the Kazan studio of N. V. Sapozhnikova, M. Sapozhnikova – her aunt – in the spring of 1916. Fechin not only frequently visited the studio but also actively participated in its decoration in the Russian style. N. M. Sapozhnikova played an important role in Fechin's life. As his student and having significant material resources from her wealthy family, she acted as a patron of the arts in relation to the artist. Her studio was one of the artistic centers of Kazan. G. P. Tuluzakova noted in Sapozhnikova’s personality the "contrast inherent in a woman's ability to subtly understand and feel the beautiful and at the same time [possess] a male mind and energetic character".
In Sapozhnikova's studio (which was attached to the Trade House of M. F. Sapozhnikov, on Kremlin Street, a building later used as the Main Post Office), artists often gathered. They not only drew but also discussed art – painters, color, primers, and thinners. According to the memories of K. K. Chebotaryov, Fechin did not like to talk much at such meetings but listened attentively to the participants, occasionally inserting short remarks that "aptly and clearly defined his attitude to the subject of the conversation". One of the discussions was about the so-called "flat" background in portraiture. Sapozhnikova, a student of both Fechin and Kees van Dongen, often applied van Dongen’s techniques in her works. During the conversation, Fechin expressed doubts about the appropriateness of these techniques, finding van Dongen's manner conventional. Later, when creating the Portrait of Varya Adoratskaya, he himself used a flat, "painted" gray wall, but it appeared "not conventional, but realistically justified".
Many years later, the artist's young model said that the story of the painting began in March–April 1914 in Kazan. Varya Adoratskaya was very close to her aunt, Nadezhda, and often visited her studio. Sapozhnikova offered the girl the chance to become a model for Nicolai Fechin. Adoratskaya recounted (with the style and orthography of the original retained):