A great history painter and master of epic pictures, Vasily Surikov produced a large number of portraits towards the end of his career.
Disclosing the individual personalities of each subject, the artist also managed to convey his concept of an ideal. This work depicts a handsome woman admiring her reflection in a mirror. Painted in harmonious tones of brown and deep blue, this portrait has much in common with such historical masterpieces as Titian’s Venus with a Mirror and Francesco Melzi’s Female Portrait.

Surikov Vasily

Surikov, Vasily Ivanovich
184 8, Krasnoyarsk -1916, Moscow
Studied in Krasnoyarsk, at the School of Drawing, Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1869) and under Pavel Chistyakov at the Imperial Academy of Arts (1869-75). Member of the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions (from 1881) and the Union of Russian Artists (from 1908). Full member of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1893), academician (1895). Visited Western Europe and Siberia. Lived in Moscow (from 1877).