The artist is Repin
The line of the XIX – XX centuries has become a turning point in the creative and personal life of Repin. After more than a decade of the artist’s relationship with his wife, he connects his fate with writer Natalia Borisovna Nordman (pseudonym – Severova). In her person, Repin finally saw such a long -awaited creative and economic person. Since 1900, they begin a life together in their own estate “Penates” near St. Petersburg. Despite the unkind attitude of some friends to the new companion of the artist, this Civil Union was originally filled with sincerity of bright feelings. Dozens of graphic and picturesque images of Nordman-Severnova serve as confirmation: during a walk, reading, work, during sleep and others.
On one of these portraits of 1905, Natalia Borisovna was captured by a sitting under an umbrella on an open terrace against a mountain landscape. Thanks to the impressionistic manner of writing and a bright palette, the image seems weightless and pacified and poetic. The portrait was written on the way to Italy, in the vicinity of Krakow, where there was an estate of friends – Tarkhanovs.
Nordman Natalia Borisovna (writers’ pseudonym Severova; 1863–1914) – writer, second wife and. E. Repin.
