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Girl with Peaches
Valentin Serov · Impressionism
- Artist
- Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (1865–1911)
- Date
- 1887
- Dimensions
- 91 x 85 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Girl with Peaches shows a twelve-year-old girl with dark hair and a pink blouse with a black bow, sitting at a table in a bright dining room. She looks directly at us, a peach in her hand and more peaches and a knife on the white tablecloth before her.
A closer look
The girl is Vera Mamontova, daughter of the art patron Savva Mamontov, painted at the family estate of Abramtsevo near Moscow, a famous meeting place for Russian artists. Serov, then only twenty-two, made her sit for about two months, every day after lunch. He wanted to paint 'something joyful', and the room is filled with fresh summer light from the window, reflected on the walls, the girl's face and the fruit. The lively, free brushwork and the radiant colours make it one of the first great Russian paintings close to Impressionism.