Self-Portrait as Self-Presentation in the Works of Female Painters of the Turn of the 19th—20th Centuries

The article examines the creativity of women artists, which experienced an upsurge at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, associated with the removal of restrictions on their education at the Imperial Academy of Arts and the increasing need for self-realization in art. General tendencies are revealed, which do not concern the subject-technical side of the paintings, but allow us to draw generalizing conclusions about the artists’ thinking: self-determination and correlation of themselves with the creative environment, drawing attention to themselves as individuals. An attempt is made to understand the ways in which women were included in the full-fledged learning process as a group with its own socio-cultural characteristics.

The aim of the paper is to analyze the creative approach to self-portraiture of the female artists E.A. Kiseleva, E.K. Luksh-Makovskaya, O.L. Della-Vos-Kardovskaya, who started their professional path under one teacher — I.E. Repin. The relevance of the article lies in the attempt to raise the problem of studying women’s creativity in the creation of self-portraits, identifying its artistic specificity, defining the cultural and aesthetic basis.

The article focuses on the prerequisites for the formation of the creative method of female artists, based on the combination of individual and imitative. On the basis of consideration of the gallery of works the author develops a typology of female self-portrait: professional self-portrait, self-portrait-emotion, family self-portrait, self-portrait-image. It is traced how in the work of women-artists various artistic influences in Russia and Western Europe of the turn of the 19th—20th centuries, interpreted by them in their own way.

1. Zinchenko N.E. Zhenskoe obrazovanie v Rossii: istoricheskii ocherk [Female Education in Russia: a historical essay]. St. Petersburg, Komm. Skor. Publ., 1901, 46 p.

2. Likhacheva E.O. Materialy dlya istorii zhenskogo obrazovaniya v Rossii (1086—1856) [Materials for the History of Female Education in Russia (1086—1856)]. St. Petersburg, Tip. M.M. Stasyulevicha Publ., 1899, 887 p.

3. Pokrovskaya M.I. O vysshem zhenskom obrazovanii v Rossii [About Higher Female Education in Russia]. St. Petersburg, Tip. P.P. Soikina Publ., 1906, 16 p.

4. Akademiya khudozhestv. Vremennyi ustav Imperatorskoi Akademii khudozhestv, vysochaishe utverzhdennyi v 15 den’ oktyabrya 1893 goda [Academy of Arts. Temporary Statute of the Imperial Academy of Arts, Approved by the Imperial Decree of October 15, 1893]. St. Petersburg, 1893, 26 p.

5. O prieme uchenikov v Vysshee khudozhestvennoe uchilishche pri Imperatorskoi Akademii khudozhestv, na osnovanii ustava Vysochaishe utverzhdennago 15-go oktyabrya 1893 g. [On Admission of Students to the Higher Art School of the Imperial Academy of Arts, on the Statute Approved by the Imperial Decree of October 15, 1893]. St. Petersburg, Tipo-Litografiya K. Birkenfel’da Publ., 1907, 6 p.

6. Academy of Arts of the Ministry of the Imperial Court. On Establishment of Classes for Female Students of the Academy, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Historical Archive], coll. 789, aids 10, fol. 64, 1876 (in Russ.).

7. Buisson S., Kortunova N., Lebelle I. (eds.) Muzy Monparnasa: katalog vystavki “Muzy Monparnasa”, 13 iyulya — 3 oktyabrya 2021 goda, Galereya iskusstva stran Evropy i Ameriki GMII im. A.S. Pushkina, Moskva [Les Muses de Montparnasse: the exhibition catalogue, July 13 — October 3, 2021, Gallery of 19th and 20th Century European and American Art of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow]. Moscow, ABCdesign Publ., 2021, 239 p.

8. Zinger L.S. Avtoportret v sisteme zhanrov. Ocherki teorii i istorii portreta [Self-Portrait in the System of Genres. Essays on the Theory and History of Portrait]. Moscow, Izobrazitel’noe Iskusstvo Publ., 1986, 323 p.

9. Lyashko A.V. Avtoportret kak fenomen samosoznaniya kul’tury [Self-Portrait as a Phenomenon of Self-Consciousness of Culture], Cand. cult. sci. diss. St. Petersburg, 2001, 217 p.

10. Kruse S.V. Avtoportret kak forma samopoznaniya lichnosti khudozhnika [Self-Portrait as a Form of Self-Recognition of the Artist’s Personality], Cand. philos. sci. diss. Rostov-on-Don, 2004, 170 p.

11. Ostroumova-Lebedeva A.P. Avtobiograficheskie zapiski. T. 1—2 [Autobiographical Notes. Vol. 1—2]. Moscow, ZAO Tsentrpoligraf Publ., 2003, 594 p.

12. Academy of Arts of the Ministry of the Imperial Court. Della-Vos-Kardovskaya, Olga Ludvigovna, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Historical Archive], coll. 789, aids 12, lit. “I”, fol. 29, 1894 (in Russ.).

13. Personal File Della-Vos-Kardovskaya O.L., 1877, artist, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva [Russian State Archive of Literature and Art], coll. 2907, aids 2, item 253 (in Russ.).

14. Academy of Arts of the Ministry of the Imperial Court. Kiseleva, Elena Andreevna, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Historical Archive], coll. 789, aids 12, lit. “I”, fol. 41, 1898 (in Russ.).

15. Savenkova I.I. Elena Andreevna Kiseleva. Tvorchestvo v kontekste khudozhestvennykh iskanii ehpokhi (izobrazitel’noe iskusstvo kontsa XIX — nachala XX v.) [Elena Andreevna Kiseleva. Creativity in the Context of Artistic Quest of the Epoch (Fine Arts of the Late 19th — Early 20th Century)]. Voronezh, Kvarta Publ., 2023, 215 p.

16. Academy of Arts of the Ministry of the Imperial Court. Makovskaya, Elena Konstantinovna, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi istoricheskii arkhiv [Russian State Historical Archive], coll. 789. Op. 12. Lit. “I”. D. 20. 1896 g. (in Russ.).

17. Derenda M. Kunst als Beruf: Käthe Kollwitz (1867—1945) und Elena Luksch-Makowskaja (1878—1967). Frankfurt, New York, Campus, Cop. Publ., 2018, 562 p.

18. Savenkova I.I. Work in Paris and Paris Itself in Paintings by E.A. Kiselyeva, Teatr. Zhivopis’. Kino. Muzyka [Theater. Painting. Cinema. Music], Moscow, 2015, no. 2, pp. 79—94 (in Russ.).

19. Dobuzhinsky M.V. Vospominaniya [Memories]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 1987, 477 p.

20. Rollig S., Klee A., Chadzis A., Fellner S., Rosenfeld A. Exhibition Catalogue Elena Luksch-Makowsky. Silver Age und Secession. Vienna, Gugler GmbH, Melk Publ., 2020, 144 p.

21. Radlov N.E. Vstupitel’naya stat’ya k katalogu “Vystavka kartin moskovskikh i leningradskikh khudozhnikov, organizovannaya k 25-letiyu khudozhestvennoi i pedagogicheskoi deyatel’nosti D.N. Kardovskogo” [Introduction to the Catalogue “Exhibition of Paintings by Moscow and Leningrad Artists, Arranged for the 25th Anniversary of the Artistic and Pedagogical Activity of D.N. Kardovsky”]. Moscow, 1929, p. 2.