Akhmatova Portrait Biography

To the glory of the fatherland to share “Anna Andreevna struck me with her appearance. Now, in the memories of her, she is sometimes called a beauty: no, she was not a beauty. But she was more than a beauty, better than a beauty. In these lines, the poet and critic Georgy Adamovich clearly described the impression that Akhmatova made to his contemporaries. Her unusual, memorable appearance, her full dignity of manner of keeping herself repeatedly inspired by artists.

As a rule, the authors of the portraits of Akhmatova were not only fans of her talent. They entered the vast circle of her communication.

And the image of Akhmatova arose in their work it is no coincidence. Akhmatova herself acted as her own portrait. In poetic autographs, it does not just fix the features of her appearance, - building, honing her appearance, she creates her lyrical heroine. Nathan Altman, the author of one of the most famous portraits of Akhmatova, follows this image, embodying the determining features of her individual style.

The artist and the poet was connected by the memories of Paris, where they met in the year. Altman then worked in the legendary “hive”, the Montparnassian refuge of international bohemia. Akhmatova in those days was the muse of another inhabitant of the “hive”, Amedeo Modigliani. In her memoirs about the visits to the Altman's workshop, located in the attic on the Neva embankment, about long conversations, jokes and extravagant walks on the roof, the plots of the Parisian bohemian myth appear.

The image created by the altman, a disadvantaged sophisticated and at the same time full of internal power, became one of the symbols of the Silver Age with its style of style and anxious pre-heating forebodings. Lyubov Shakirova. Poetry and life. " Doubts and hopes. One of the best in the artist’s creative heritage is the portrait of Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova, nee Gorenko - that Altman met in the year in Paris.

Two years later, they met in St. Petersburg, and Altman asked Akhmatov to give him several sessions. In an effort to emphasize the artistry of the model, the artist was far from the idea of ​​introducing the poetess in a everyday environment of his workshop. He developed a conditional, somewhat fantastic background. A special refinement gives the work a decorative sonorous coloristic solution.

Russian museum. From the icon to the present. One of the best works in Altman's heritage, the portrait appeared under the impression of Akhmatova’s poems at that time already the author of the book “Evening”, as well as acquaintance with the poetess in Paris and meetings with her in the Petersburg cabaret “Wandering Dog”. She herself and her poetry seemed to the young artist an echo of the world of “joy of unprecedented”, associated with dreams of eternal, imperishable beauty.

Anna Akhmatova is captured by the one that many contemporaries are remembered - a sad young woman, tall and slender, with a minted profile and an unchanged bang, which is in a large shawl. Working on a portrait in the workshop on the cloud embankment, Altman refused to specify the situation. The poetess is depicted against the background of the landscape, by the will of the author of the transformed into shining crystals, perceived as the world of abstract, exalted dreams.

The intensive colors of clothing and transparent tones of the background sparkle on the canvas, like precious stones, emphasizing the sophistication and inspiration of the poetess. XX century: St. Petersburg, Akhmatova Gorenko Anna Andreevna - - poet. By the time of the creation of the portrait, Anna Andreevna Akhmatova, was already a famous poet. The image created by the artist retained the pronounced appearance of Akhmatova and the properties of the original character, combining special closeness, the sophistication of nature and the features of majesty and even the kingdom.

In the vast gallery of portraits of Akhmatova from A. Modigliani to K. Petrov-Vodkin, this work is one of the best. The artist creates an image with expressive picturesque means: color contrasts, angular lines, somewhat cubicated - in the spirit of time - forms.