Russian Art
Perov, V. G.
"Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev". 1872
Notes: Portrait of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818-1883), writer
While Perov devoted numerous canvases to images of the rural and urban poor, he also produced a series of portraits of distinguished Russians, which included this image of Ivan Turgenev, one of the premier Russian writers of his century. Author of "Fathers and Sons," Turgenev was an enormously talented man whose sage appearance was an ideal subject for the portraitist. Turgenev lived mainly in Germany and France in the last twenty-five years of his life and believed firmly in the superiority of the West. Nevertheless, like Perov, Turgenev was a well-bred liberal who was dedicated to Russia and improving the plight of the peasantry. Indeed, his writings probably did much to advance the cause for reform and played a crucial role in the emancipation of the serfs in 1861.
