“Alexandre Serebriakoff: Retratista De Interiores” 1990 MAURIES, Patrick The Cary Collection

MAURIES, Patrick

[153] pp.

Limited Spanish edition ejemplar numero 570

In FMR publisher’s clamshell slipcase

1990

13 3/4″H x 9 1/4″W

Fine

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Milano. Franco Maria Ricci. 1990. First edition. No. 570 of a limited edition of 5000 copies. Spanish language edition. Black silk-bound hardback, with tipped-on colour plate and gilt titles to front and spine, housed in black-cloth clam-shell-box, with black patterned-paper to front and back. 157 pages on grey heavy stock. Illustrated throughout with tipped-in colour plates showing reproductions of Serebriakoff’s watercolours. 370 x 255mm (14½ x 10″). 1.7kg. Spanish. Fine; a very well preserved copy.

A beautifully produced monograph on the Russian artist and watercolourist Alexandre Serebriakoff (1907-1994), renowned for his portraits of interiors. Patrick Mauries’ text reviews both the life and work of Serebriakoff. Included are reprints of essays on the artist by Paul Morand, Cecil Beaton, Mario Praz and Emilio Terry, as well as an earlier interview with Charles de Beistegui. The book concludes with a list of works and a chronology of the interior portraits.

Alexandre Borissovich Serebriakoff was a Russian painter, watercolourist and decorator, born on September 7, 1907 in Neskoutchnoïe , near Kharkov (now Ukraine ), died in Paris 14th on January 10, 1995. Exiled in France after the Russian Revolution , he practiced the rare specialty of interior portraiture , leaving meticulous testimony to the settings and festivals of French high society. He often signed his works with his sister, Catherine Serebriakoff .

Biography
Alexandre Serebriakoff was born into a family of artists. His mother, Zinaïda Serebriakova, was the first Russian woman to be recognized as an important painter. She was related to Benois, famous dynasty of Russian artists who emigrated to France in the XVIII th century. Alexandre’s great-grandfather was thus the architect Nicolas Benois , his great-uncle is the painter, decorator and scenographer Alexandre Benois , founder of Mir Iskousstva and friend of Serge de Diaghilev . His grandfather Eugène was a sculptor. One of his uncles, Eugène Lanceray, was a sculptor, painter and graphic designer, the other, Nicolas Lanceray, a renowned architect.

Alexandre Serebriakoff was seven years old when the October Revolution broke out . All family property was then confiscated, in particular the property of Neskoutchnoïe (in French, “Sans Souci”) where he was born. His father, Boris, was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks: he died in 1919 of typhus contracted during his imprisonment. His mother took her children to Petrograd to try to survive, but, faced with difficulties, decided to emigrate alone to Paris in 1924. Alexandre and his sister Catherine joined her shortly after. This is where Alexandre began his career as an interior designer. He stayed in Camaret-sur-Mer and Concarneau, with his family, for several summers over the following years.

Alexandre Serebriakoff was buried with his mother, Zinaïda Serebriakova , in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois 1.

Clients

He worked for sponsors of Parisian or London high society, of which he represented the places of life, mansions and castles: among others, Mr. and Mrs. Arturo Lopez-Willshaw, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Baron Alexis_de_Redé, Charles de Beistegui, the Rothschilds, the Schneiders, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald Tree in Ditchley.

Parties and decorations

He was involved in decoration and notably executed a series of drawings from the Bal oriental given by Baron Alexis de Redé , December 5, 1969 in the Hotel Lambert, in Paris.