Year 1956 Artist Lev Russov | Medium Oil on canvas Created 1956 | |
Dimensions 60 cm × 50 cm (24 in × 20 in) Location private collection, Moscow Similar Portrait of Yevgeny Mravinsky, House with Arch, Russian Winter Hoarfrost, Cafe Gurzuf, Nevsky Prospekt | ||
Portrait of Catherine Balebina is a painting by Russian portrait artist Lev Russov (1926–1987), which depicts his wife Catherine Balebina (Russian: Екатери′на Васи′льевна Бале′бина; 1933–2002).
History
The portrait was painted in Leningrad in 1956 and belonged to the most famous portrait paintings of artist. He met with Catherine Balebina (born December 29, 1933, daughter of Vasily Balebin, the famed military pilot and torpedo-bomber, the Hero of the Soviet Union and Great Patriotic War) in 1955, one year before. Soon she too become his wife (the marriage would be officially registered on 31 January 1959), the mother of his son (Andrew Russov was born April 27, 1960) and the main muse. Charming and lively, full of self-sacrifice, it would pose Leo Russov as a model for many paintings and portraits. For many years it will create and preserve a world in which manifested itself in full force and flashed a creative gift by Lev Russov.
In the portrait of his wife, Russov raises on a pedestal gamine image of feminine beauty and charm. Seems Rusov not pursue any purpose other than to canonize, sing this perfect image. And he does it according to the laws of the genre. Author successfully found a neutral background, which in combination with a closed dark blue dress let all the attention focused on her face, effectively shaded chestnut mane of hair. At the full force transferred expressive eyes of a young woman. Her gaze directed to the side, at the corner of her sensual lips hid a smile. As a contrast with the static posture her eyes talk about passionate and independent nature. We can read this also in general expression of the face of a young woman. In the portrait there are no details belongs to a specific time or place. And, yet, we do not hesitate to recognize the young woman as a contemporary of the middle - second half of the 1950s. Perhaps never early the female images in Russian Art was not as open, cheerful, lively, and without a trace of affectation, never carried a combination of the spiritual and physical beauty with deep civic and independent views.
Until the early 1990s, Portrait of Catherine Balebina was kept in the family of the artist. In the future, he was acquired in a private collection. In 2007 the «Portrait of Catherine Balebina» has been described and reproduced in the book «Unknown Socialist Realism. The Leningrad School» among 350 selected works by artists of the Leningrad School.