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Valentin Serov. Portrait of Faberge

Some years ago a private collector purchased a portrait of an unknown elderly man with a beard. The painting had been signed by Valentin Serov. The experts from the State Tretjakov Gallery confirmed the authorship of famous Russian painter Serov, but found difficulty in identifying the portrayed person.

Absolutely by chance, as it usually happens, the owner of the portrait by Valentin Serov leafed over the book "Faberge in St. Petersburg" (published in the end of 2004) and was impressed by the likeness of the famous jeweler and the elderly man from the portrait. The collector asked to find all the existing images of the jeweler. There turned out to be few of them ≈ the iconographic row of Carl Faberge is very limited. The photographs of the life-time bust of Faberge, created in 1903 by the German sculptor Joseph Limburg turned out to be the most precious ones for identification. I. Limburg studied at the Academy of Arts in Hanau (Germany) in the beginning of the 1890s along with Evgenij Faberge.

The set of the photographs was given to some art critics and experts-criminalists. The necessary procedure of measurements and calculations of a module of ratio of different parts of the face were carried out. Particular attention was given to the structure of the scull. In computer modeling the shape of the scull of the person from the portrait was ideally identical with the only known sculptural portrait of the jeweler. In judicial criminalistics this is considered to be an important argument. The interpretation of the obtained results gave the opportunity to conclude: the intelligent man with a beard on the portrait and Carl Faberge are one and the same person. The shape of the scull, ears, nose, the eyes, superciliary arches also proved of that.

The art critics not only paid attention to the particular features of "Serov▓s" wide touches but also to the costume of the portrayed person. This is an absolutely simple unassuming suit as contemporaries and biographers of Carl Faberge confirm it characteristic of Carl Faberge remarked. G. Bainbridge (the first biographer of Faberge) underlined that Carl Faberge gave particular attention to clean shirts and that his dress reminded of the costume of a forester from a rich estate. But it is not simplicity that impresses in the portrait. Here, as in famous Gogol▓s story, the audience is bewildered by an unusual magnetic glance. An outstanding personality. No wonder that Serov could create the portrait of Carl. We know his great portraits of Emmanuel Nobel, Yusupov family and, finally, Emperor Nicolas II. All of them were the best Faberge▓s clients. Nobel was his close friend. Faberge was the head of the biggest jewelry factory all over the world with an annual turnover of some millions rubles. More than 600 persons worked for the firm. Even during his lifetime the jeweler was world-famous. But in distinction from his foreign colleagues ≈ contemporaries: Cartier, Tiffani, Boucheron, Carl Faberge considered himself to be not the trader, but the artist-jeweler.

The charismatic personality of Faberge couldn▓t but awake the interest of such a great master of portrait as Valentin Serov. The artist paid attention to the jeweler▓s hands with long thin fingers that remind of pianist▓s hands. These hands are clearly seen on the famous photograph where the jeweler sorts the diamonds. There exists another photograph of 1918 taken in Germany, on which Carl Faberge▓s hands are clearly seen. Serov saw the character. He with the expression characteristic of him, captured the wit, the power of intellect.

Contemporaries often noted the intellectual superiority of Faberge, his charisma. The Bulgarian King Ferdinand once told to Carl Faberge: "With your intelligence you could have become a minister in my state". "Anything but this! ≈ exclaimed Faberge. ≈ Though I▓m ready to become the minister of the jeweler▓s art".

It is likely that Serov accomplished the portrait at one sitting, as he often did. Faberge himself didn▓t enjoy posing, that▓s why few images of him exist. There is data that family portraits of Faberge by professor Carl Venig, Carl Faberge▓s cousin, existed. Jeweler devoted all his time to his beloved job, contacts with colleagues and clients. This consumed a great quantity of emotional energy. Carl Faberge could suddenly make up his mind and leave for Nice where he stayed at "Negresco" hotel. And he took only his toothbrush along with him. He bought new shirts right at the place. He usually afforded such a rest once a year, after the Easter, after hard work over the Eastern orders. Probably it is during this period of intensive work that Carl Faberge agreed to pose to Serov.

It is likely that Serov▓s portrait of Carl Faberge was accomplished approximately in 1906√1910. In 1906 the jeweler turned 60 and was going to retire, having passed the business to his sons (his father, Gustav Faberge, handed the business to him at the age of 48). However the unexpected circumstances: the going out from business of Moscow partner, the necessity to organize a new store in London, the death of Moscow manager Otto Yarke in 1912, the intensive work over the orders for the 300-years anniversary of Romanov Dynasty (1913) and, finally, 1914, the First World War put off his coming out from business for ten long years. Only in 1916, in the year of his 70th anniversary he reorganized his business into the joint-stock company with the capital of three million rubles.

From the portrait of Valentin Serov a tired, preoccupied but at the same time filled with inexplicable power of life wise man looks at us. The portrait gives a very strong impression. The colossal personality is revealed with great mastery. "The heritage, left to the Russian art by

A. Serov, to me doesn▓t seem a treasure that comes to one▓s hands without difficulties", ≈ wrote the art historian Vsevolod Dmitriev in 1917; he justly noted the astonishing many-sidedness of the artist.

After the series of "Yusupovs▓" portraits the artist realized his own approach to the problems of genre of the portrait: "How to capture the person ≈ this is the main thing". Valentin Serov managed to "capture Faberge". This, taking into consideration the reserved character of the jeweler, wasn▓t an easy task. It is noticeable that Faberge was spiritually close to Serov. The director▓s mastery of the artist ≈ the talent noted by the researchers in the works by Serov draws attention. The individual compositions were worked out by Serov for the realization of the image. During the mature period of the creative life of Serov (after 1905), his striving for generalization and laconism inspired the artist to search for the utmost expressiveness of the contour, refusing the spatial light, sometimes using only a few hues of grey, brown, black and white. Serov▓s compositions are never repeated. And in the portrait of Faberge we see a particularly original composition. It seems that work is waiting for him, that he is ready to stand up and is piercingly looking at the artist for the last time.

The discovery of an unknown portrait of Carl Faberge by is a great event. It gives a special joy because it happened in 2006, the year of the 160th anniversary of the jeweler.