Girl with Peaches is a painting by Russian artist Valentin Serov from 1887.
It is regarded as one of Serov’s best and most well-known compositions. Igor Grabar, a Russian art historian and Serov’s friend and biographer, praised it as: “the masterpiece of Russian painting”.
According to the book 1000 Drawings of Genius, although the style of the painting (and Serov’s early style in general) “has much in common with the French Impressionists, [Serov] did not become acquainted with their work until after he had painted [it]”.
Illustration of the painting
Vera Mamontova, 12, is portrayed in the painting. She is the young daughter of Russian businesswoman and art patron Savva Mamontova.
It was created at the estate of Abramtsevo, which is close to Moscow. When Mamontov acquired the property from author Sergei Aksakov in 1870, Abramtsevo had already established itself as a major cultural hub in Russia.
He maintained the custom. Artists Ilya Repin, Ivan Turgenev, Mikhail Vrubel, and Mark Antokolsky were among those who stayed there. It was a cozy place for artists to live and work as well as congregate and discuss important subjects.
Since he frequently visited Mamontov’s Abramtsevo estate and occasionally lived there for extended periods of time, Valentin Serov was acquainted with Vera Mamontova since she was a young child.
Later, Serov recalled,
The painting was awarded first place at the Moscow Society of Lovers of Art Exhibition in 1887.
Vera Mamontova, a model, married Alexander Dmitrievich Samarin, the head of the Moscow Nobility League and future chief prosecutor of the Most Holy Synod, in 1903. Three kids were born to them. She developed pneumonia in 1907 when she was 32 years old, and she passed away a short time later. Her grave is in Abramtsevo.
The painting gave rise to a Russian Internet meme in which the girl is either replaced by a different person or character or is included in amusing scenarios. One of the altered images, titled “The Girl with Peaches: Full Version,” showed the girl seated at a sizable table covered in various dishes.
