Портрет в творчестве Марианны Веревкиной
Portrait in the Creative Work of Mariana von Werefkin

Summary/Abstract: In the early years of her artistic career Marianna von Werefkin created portraits in a realistic manner. Taking the number of portraits as examples, this research shows how the artist reconsiders the notion of beauty denoting the principles of classical art in favour of the abstract ideal beauty. Then she ceased painting for ten years and started drawing portraits in notebooks instead. These notebooks are filled with portraits of her friends, musicians, ladies and gentlemen at the cafes and dance floors. Numerous sketches from these small albums have not yet been published. They mark a transition to modernism in von Werefkin’s art. In 1906 von she shifted back to painting. Portraits of this period A are clearly expressionistic. As a consequence of a thorough study of the artists’ archives, memoirs and correspondence we reached the vivid understanding of her reconsideration of the classical ideals of beauty. The philosophical implications, the richness of color, the complexity of plastical solutions bring up the renewal of the pictorial language. In her later works the symbolization of the expressionistic portrait took place.

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