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Description: oil on board

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Dimensions: 40.5 by 31.5cm., 16 by 12½in.

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Provenance: Purchased directly from the artist by Emmanuel Nobel;
A gift from the above to his sister, Anna;
Subsequently bequeathed to her sister Maria;
Thence by descent

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Notes: PROPERTY FROM THE NOBEL FAMILY COLLECTION
Emmanuel Ludvigovich Nobel (1859-1932), nephew of Alfred, who founded the Nobel prize, took over the family businesses in Russia following his father?s death in 1888. Under his leadership, Russia?s oil industry became the most developed in the world and oil production superseded that of any other country. Nobel was not simply a businessman, but also a philanthropist, who created an entire compound for his employees to ensure their welfare. Built alongside his own residence, the aptly named Villa Petrolea, it comprised hospitals, schools and even bowling alleys. The entire compound was destroyed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, a year after Nobel and his family had left Russia and settled in Sweden. The offered lot is a sketch to the larger 1909 portrait of Emmanuel Nobel sold in these rooms on 14υth November 1988. Serov?s portraiture of this period had developed beyond mere physical representation. Dmitri Sarabyanov explains that, in his quest to reveal the complex 'psychological core' of his sitter's personality, Serov was not afraid to exaggerate his subject's features. "Each time I appraise a person's face I am inspired, you might even say carried away, not by his or her outer aspect, which is often trivial, but by the characterization it can be given on canvas. That is why I am accused of sometimes having my portraits look like caricatures" (V.Serov in D.Sarabyanov, Valentin Serov, Aurora Art Publishers: Leningrad, 1982, p.24) The focus of this close-cropped study is without a doubt the intense look of uncertainty in Nobel?s eyes hinting at a deeper, spiritual disorder. Serov subsequently extended this Dostoyevskian sense of inner turmoil to the rest of Nobel?s posture in the larger portrait, where the sitter is shown awkwardly balancing on the edge of his armchair.