Page:Benois - The Russian School of Painting (1916).djvu/217

 and the Grand Princes Mikhail Nicolayevich, Georgy Nicolayevich and Pavl Alexandrovich, and ends with the most characteristic representatives of the Russian "intelligentzia": rich patronisers, artists, musicians, authors. The value of these likenesses consists, in addition to the beauty of their painting and the noble splendour of their colours, in the sincerity and ease with which Syerov attacked his themes. With very few exceptions, he has never painted official portraits: this would be a perfectly impossible task for so "independent" a character. Syerov's portraits are always intimate, they give us the images of human beings, not of ideas with which the latter are connected. The expression of Syerov's artistic personality was not limited to landscapes and portraits. He is of too ardent and artistic a nature to remain within any limits whatever. He essayed his forces in the field of "historical painting," if it is possible to apply this term to the works of such a direct and sincere master as Syerov is. Unfortunately, he is not prolific. His historical compositions are few, and they are nearly all executed by Kutepov's order for the "Czars' Hunt." But these charming aquarelles are sufficient to assure Syerov the reputation of the "Russian Mentzel," of an artist who can render the life of dim ages with wonderful keenness and rare technical skill.