Mika Morozov (in Russian: Мика Морозов; alternatively known as Portrait of Mika Morozov) is a painting by the Russian artist Valentin Serov. It was painted in 1901. For the artist at the age of four posed future Soviet literary scholar (specialist in the works of William Shakespeare), theater scholar, teacher, translator Mikhail Morozov, son of a major Russian businessman and philanthropist Mikhail Abramovich Morozov.
The painting forms part of the State Tretyakov Gallery collection's in Moscow, where it arrived in 1917. It has been repeatedly presented at national and international exhibitions. Among them are the exhibition In Russian Art Traditions held in 2004-2005 at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. and an exhibition of works from the collection of the Morozov brothers at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in 2021-2022.
The art critic in her book Bridge over the Abyss (2015) noted that the canvas reflects the view of the child characteristic of the second half of the 19th century — "sometimes the emotional or mental or inner world of a child is more significant than the world of an adult". The adult lives "in a socially defined world" — in a "false and closed" world. From the point of view of the artists of the time, complete openness is characteristic of children. However, she noted that from the second half of the 19th century artists "begin to deal only with the salvation of the world" and they are little interested in children. Therefore, Serov's treatment of the child in the portrait of Mika Morozov is "the least numerous and very quickly cut off", but at the same time "the deepest and most fruitful".
Canvas representation
The boy depicted in the paintingIt is often claimed that Mikhail Mikhailovich Morozov was five years old when he was portrayed in Valentin Serov's painting. In fact, he was only four. For example, the multivolume reference book Russian Writers (1999) quotes the above statement in an article by Vera Bokova, chief researcher of the Scientific-Exposition Department of the State Historical Museum, Doctor of Historical Sciences, and in the same article there are dates of birth and death of the artist's model, which indicate that Mika was actually one year less: "One of their sons (at the age of five, depicted in Serov's painting 'Mika Morozov') - M. M. Morozov (1897-1952), literary scholar, dramatist, translator, one of the prominent Soviet Shakespeare scholars". is the third child in the family of the great industrialist, collector and patron of the arts Mikhail Abramovich and his wife — the mistress of the famous literary and musical salon of the time Margarita Kirillovna Morozova, the future Soviet literary scholar (specialist in the works of William Shakespeare), theatrical historian, teacher, translator Mikhail Mikhailovich Morozov (1897-1952).Мика Морозов. 1901. Государственная Третьяковская галерея. Дата обращения: 28 February 2023. Archive: 28 February 2023. The boy jumps up from the chair in which he was sitting. The feeling of the impetuosity of his movements is intensified by the techniques of French Impressionism used by the artist. The child's fascination with the game, or something else that remains unknown to the viewer, is emphasized by "wide-open brown eyes, slightly parted crimson lips, and blush".
Mika's mouth is half open. The boy's big dark eyes are staring intently at something. The curly hair on his head is in a picturesque mess. He rests his hands on the armrests of the chair. The Soviet and Russian art historian Dmitry Sarabianov claimed that the boy's gesture and pose in the painting were so successfully chosen by the artist that "the character's emotions can be read like an open book. The curiosity with which he is seized causes him to stand up, stretch his neck, and tense up. In Sarabianov's words, he "seems to be the embodiment of a child's curiosity".
Yevgenia Korobkova, a candidate of philological sciences, said that the literary critic Galina Yuzefovich assumed that the intricately carved wooden child's chair from the Abramtsevo workshops, which stood in her house, could be the chair on which Mika Morozov is depicted in Valentin Serov's painting, or its "twin brother". It belonged to Yuzefovich's great-grandfather's sister, the artist Bella Casaroza. According to Yuzefovich, "theoretically" she could have met Serov.
The painting in the works of Soviet artists
The painting was created by the Russian artist Valentin Serov in 1901. The technique in which the canvas is executed is oil painting on canvas. The size of the painting is 62.3 × 70.6 cm. Russian and Soviet artist Nina Simonovich-Yefimova claimed that the portrait was painted in Valentin Serov's rented apartment on Bolshoi Znamensky Lane in Moscow. This information is confirmed in the notes to the edition of her memoirs by the art historian Grigory Arbuzov. In the two-storey house of the Ulanov merchants, the artist occupied half of the upper floor above the owners' apartment. It was the favorite rented apartment of the Serov family, where they lived for at least ten years, until Ulanovy no longer needed the whole house that belonged to them and they did not require the artist to leave the apartment.
Mika's mother wrote in her memoirs that the boy's poor health in early childhood required serious attention from his parents. In the autumn the family went to the sea, in the summer they lived in the Tver province. The summer house was located on the bank of the river, surrounded by a pine forest. At the age of four, the boy spoke Russian and good English, was interested in astronomy, memorized the names of the planets and liked to repeat them. Often he would sit at the table in a high chair, quietly thinking about something. While studying Gustave Doré's illustrations of the Old Testament, Mika felt sorry for the devil and decided to pray for him. At night he would pray for his mother and father and then add, "Have mercy on the devil. At the age of five he began to learn to read and write. According to his mother's recollections, at that time Valentin Serov painted a portrait of the boy. He not only conveyed the features of Mika at that time, but also managed to emphasize "the main feature of his nature, his extraordinary liveliness, and that is why everyone found this portrait very similar to the adult Mikhail".
Mika Morozova's mother in her memoirs about the events connected with the creation of the portrait, comparing the author of the picture with Konstantin Korovin, noted Valentin Serov's lack of imagination and considered him "a true realist". She argued that the artist was characterized by "humorous pessimism about people" — in a person he saw a caricature, noting first of all his most characteristic internal and external features. According to her, Serov often saw man as an animal. According to Margarita Morozova, in his portraits one could rarely "feel a kind and simple attitude toward the person he was portraying", but "he always painted children particularly well".An overview of Valentin Serov's children's portraits is given in the article The Master of Children's Portraits by Honored Artist of Russia Suzanne Serova in the magazine of the Tretyakov Gallery.
Margarita Morozova recalled that the artist was in a "very good and good-natured mood" during the creation of the painting. However, she herself was "a little afraid and embarrassed" by Serov, although she respected him and noted that she "liked" him as a person. Morozova wrote that at the time she did not want Serov to write her own portrait, as she believed that he disliked similar "ladies". After one of the sessions of posing with the boy, he "with a very significant and jokingly serious look" told his mother that he had heard of Mika's story of "daddy leopard" and "mammy leopard". The boy's story made the artist laugh.
Serov made several graphic portraits of the boy, as well as of Yura and Marusya four years after the portrait of Mika Morozov, the other two Morozov children. These graphic portraits were especially presented at the Salon exhibition in 1909.
Doctor of philology Natalia Ivanova quoted the testimony of Elizaveta Chernyak that in the apartment of the poet and writer Boris Pasternak at Volkhonka, 14 on the wall hung Valentin Serov's sketches for the painting Mika Morozov.
Painting at exhibitions
For a long time, the painting was in the private collection of Mikhail and Margarita Morozov, the parents of the boy depicted in the painting. In 1917, the painting was transferred from Margarita Morozova's collection to the State Tretyakov Gallery, where it has remained to this day.The fate of the Morozovs' collection is discussed in detail by the candidate of historical sciences Vsevolod Volodarsky in his article The Morozovs' Art Collections in the Tretyakov Gallery. Its inventory number in the museum's collection is 5325.
The painting was repeatedly presented at national and international exhibitions. Among them was the exhibition Mir Iskusstva (1902, St. Petersburg, at this exhibition Mika Morozov was shown under the title Portrait of a Child). The painting was exhibited at the personal posthumous exhibition of the artist's works in 1914 in Moscow and St. Petersburg, at the exhibition of Valentin Serov's works in Leningrad in 1935, at the exhibition in Warsaw in 1957, at the exhibition of the artist's works in Moscow and Leningrad in 1958-1960, at the exhibition dedicated to the works of Valentin Serov in Moscow and Leningrad in 1965, and in Tokyo and Kyoto in 1966-1967, at the exhibition in Leningrad in 1975, at the exhibition of the artist's works in Leningrad and Moscow in 1991, and in 1993 at the exhibition in the Japanese cities of Tokyo, Nara and Fukuoka; at the exhibition in Moscow in 1998 and in Helsinki in 2001.
The canvas was also shown at the exhibition In the Traditions of Russian Art at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. in 2004-2005 and at the exhibition of works from the Morozov brothers' collection at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris in 2021-2022.Шедевры нового искусства. Собрание братьев Морозовых. Париж. 22 September 2021 — 22 February 2022. Государственная Третьяковская галерея. Дата обращения: 5 March 2023. Archive: 5 March 2023. Art historian Sofia Bagdasarova, the author of an article in The Art Newspaper on the return of exhibits from the latter exhibition to Russia, noted separately: "'Portrait of Mika Morozov' by Valentin Serov has returned safely to the Tretyakov Gallery". A photo of experts examining the painting was published alongside.
Painting in the of Soviet artists' works
The Soviet art historian Georgy Lebedev noted Valentin Serov's sympathy for the Mir Iskusstva artistic society and its influence on the artist's work. In Serov's turn-of-the-century paintings, the memory of the old masters is expressed in the search for a single color leitmotif. Lebedev saw in it the influence of the cult of "silver scales" associated with the work of Konstantin Korovin. According to the art historian, this tendency was expressed in Serov's orientation "towards monuments of 'museum' painting, built on courage". To illustrate his statement, he cited the portrait of the artist's children, the portrait of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolayevich, and especially the picture of Mika Morozov.