Serge Ivanoff

Serge Petrovitch Ivanoff (25 December 1893, Moscow – 8 February 1983, Paris) was a French painter of Russian origin.

Biography

The son of a family of Muscovite merchants, Serge Ivanoff was artistic from a young age. On his parents' move to St. Petersburg he took he took classes there at the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences (today Russian Academy of Sciences), in particular the lectures and laboratory work of Professor Schmidt on human anatomy. Here he made his first contacts with Europe, through trips to Switzerland and Norway. Then came the war, during which he was mobilized as a gunner.

In 1917, while the Russian Revolution raged, he entered what was then the Higher Arts College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture at the Imperial Academy of Arts (which was to become, by 1992, the I.E. Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, subordinated within the Russian Academy of Arts).

Aged 24, he entered the Imperial Academy of Arts and perfected his art under the benevolent direction of Master Braz, curator of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. He then went to Professor Kardovsky's class and finished his studies at the Academy with competitive work in 1922. This was the first promotion of this order during the Bolshevik revolution. All contact with Europe had been cut off and study trips abroad were no longer available for students of the Academy. In 1920, his wife, with their two children, fled the Bolsheviks to Paris. Two years later, having finished his studies and forever marked by the horrors of the revolution, Serge joined them in Paris.

Before leaving, he travelled discreetly through the Russian countryside to document his impressions of the Russian countryside. On his way, he was welcomed by Ilya Repin in his dacha at Kuokkala, before crossing Finland by foot.

Finally it is to Paris, via England, that his steps lead him. He had a small testimonial book published there: "La famine en Russie Bolchévique", in which he illustrated a poignant text with his rigorous drawings.

Finally exiled, he created book illustrations, posters and advertisements to earn a living, while in the mean time continuing his artistic research. Traveling through the main cities of Europe, he established a solid reputation as a portrait painter. From 1930 to 1950, he collaborated with the magazine L'Illustration and, as such, he once again traveled the world: Italy, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Brazil.

He produced reportage drawings, such as these series of paintings representing the Hôtel Drouot depicting a model wearing jewelry from the "Passe-Partout" collection.

He met several notable figures of the period. His work as an illustrator allowed him to pursue personal artistic interests, exploring classical themes through mythological scenes, genre paintings, and still lifes.

In 1937, L'Illustration asked Serge Ivanoff to do a painting report illustrating the interiors of the Vatican. This trip was an important turning point for him for several reasons. First of all, the familiarization with the great masters of the past of the Italian school, then the beginning of a career as a portraitist of prelates of the Catholic Church. In Rome the artist made the decisive encounter with Vyacheslav Ivanov, a major figure of the Silver Age. The philosopher made him aware of his intimate creative power, which would later allow him to deepen his personal path.

After the Second World War, he developed his international career in Brazil and then in Argentina. The South American continent inspires his style with greater freedom of touch and boldness in color. At the same time, he earned a great reputation as a portraitist, which followed him beyond borders.

In 1950, Ivanoff moved to the United States; one year later he became an honorary citizen. Alexandre Benois, 1944 (Russian Museum collection) Osip Braz, Paris, 1933. Braz, for his part, painted the portrait of Serge Ivanoff. Zinaida Serebriakova, Paris, 1940 (Collection K. Serebriakova). Serebriakova in return painted Sergei Ivanoff's portrait. His son, Alexandre Serebriakoff, painted a watercolor artwork representing the studio of Serge Ivanoff (Paris, 1944). Natalia Goncharova, Paris, 1960. (Russian Museum collection) Nicholas Kalmakoff, Paris, 1929 Boris Riabouchine, Paris, 1962 (Russian Museum collection) Yury Annenkov Boris Zaytsev Serge Ivanoff peint le portrait d'Arthur Honegger. Paris, 1944., Paris, 1944. The portrait was exhibited in 1954 in San Francisco, Palace of the Legion of Honor. Edwige Feuillère María Casares, Paris, 1947 Clara Tambour, singer and French actress Myriam Colombi, Paris, 1982 (his last portrait on commission before his death) Maggy Rouff (Marguerite de Wagner), Paris, 1948

Jacques Fath Olga Boznańska, Paris, 1929 Charles Guérin, Paris, 1929 painter François Cogné, Paris, 1945. The sculptor made the same year the bronze bust of Serge Ivanoff. Paul Valéry Maurice Rostand, Paris, 1942 Anatole France Paul Léautaud Bettina von Arnim Arshag Chobanian, Paris, 1943. (Musée Arménien de France collection) Romuald Szramkiewicz, French jurist Franz von Wolff-Metternich João Neves da Fontoura, Rio de Janeiro, 1948 Lord Dunsany, San Francisco, 1953 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, 1953 Jefferson Caffery and portrait of his wife Gertrude McCarthy, Paris, 1946 Irina Belotelkin, American designer and artist Mildred Anna Williams (Colored pencils, collection Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) H.K.S.W. Williams (Colored pencils, collection Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) Moore S. Achenbach, ink, 1957 (Collection Legion of Honor, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco) Herman Flax, San Francisco, 1954 Prince Nicholas Tchkotoua and portrait of his wife, Princess Carol Tchkotoua (née Marmon), San Francisco, 1953 Sam Rayburn, 1958

Eleanor Roosevelt, painting on the spot at a conference of the UN, Lake Success, May 1950

At the Paris Opera he creates portraits of dancers of the time, in stage costumes

Serge Lifar as the romantic Prince Albert from the ballet Giselle, Yvette Chauviré, Ghislaine Thesmar, Paris, 1976

Serge Ivanoff painted many portraits of ecclesiastics

Pope Pius XI, at Castel Gandolfo, 1937. The pope, though sick and tired, posed for the preparatory portrait.

Cardinal Van Roey, 1944 Mgr Harscouët, bishops of Chartres, 1943 (The portrait can still be found today in the premises of the Chartres Cathedral) Cardinal Verdier on his deathbed, 1940 The result was large-scale compositions, scenes of nude women in ancient landscapes. His touch is apparent and spontaneous.

Then came the North American period. Gradually, his palette began to take on a specific range of blue-gray hues, which he would continue to vary and deepen until his death.

Returning to France in the 60s, he applied his palette to a wide range of religious and intimate themes, Parisian interiors, female nudes, erotic scenes and enigmatic mythological scenes.

Book Illustrations

Les Diaboliques, Barbey d'Aurevilly, Simon Kra, Paris, 1925 Petits Poèmes en prose, Charles Baudelaire, Javal et Bourdeaux 1933 Le hasard au coin du feu, Crebillon, 1934 Tristan and Iseult, Joseph Bédier, 1960 Michel Strogoff, Jules Verne, Maurice Gonon, 1962 Tartuffe & Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, Molière, Limited Éditions Club, NY 1963