Catherine Serebriakoff

Catherine Serebriakoff is a Russian painter and watercolorist who practiced with her brother Alexandre the rare specialty of interior portraiture, leaving a meticulous testimony of the settings in which Parisian high society lived from the 1930s to 1970s.

Leaving Soviet Russia definitively in 1928 with her brother, she joined her mother, the painter Zinaïda Serebriakova, in Paris. To earn a living, she offers drawings and watercolors for theater, ballet and film sets. The meticulousness and realism of these works earned them both the attention of wealthy amateurs, notably Charles de Beistegui who had the idea of ​​producing sets of watercolors representing his residences and his ephemeral decorations for festivals and costume balls, like the great collectors and aristocrats of the 19th century. In particular, he commissioned painted views of different rooms in his private mansion on rue de Constantine, in Paris.

From then on, Catherine was part of a minor but sought-after tradition of Russian painting, that of interior portraiture. Using watercolor or sometimes gouache, on sheets rarely exceeding size 50 x 65 cm, the artist details object after object, piece of furniture after piece of furniture, the decor of a room, living room, bedroom, library, winter garden... The precision is often almost photographic. The gouaches and watercolors are generally the result of a collaboration between brother and sister. Occasionally they are signed by both, but more often only the name Alexander appears. He most often decides on the general composition, the orientation of the light and the arrangement of the furniture, while Catherine takes care of the tiny details of the ornaments, paintings, bronzes of the furniture, tapestries and objects of art. Certain works of the Serebriakoffs, in particular the series of interiors executed at the Château de Groussay, are considered comparable to the royal albums of the end of the 19th century.

Thanks to the patronage of Charles de Beistegui, the Serebriakoffs were introduced to eminent architects and decorators of their time, such as Jean-Michel Frank, Emilio Terry, Stéphane Boudin, Georges Geffroy, Madeleine Castaing... They worked for sponsors of the high Parisian society, whose living spaces, mansions and castles they will represent: among others, Mr. and Mrs. Arturo Lopez-Willshaw, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Baron Alexis de Redé, the Rothschilds, the Schneiders, Mr and Mrs Ronald Tree in Ditchley, Mr and Mrs Emmanuel de Margerie.

Catherine Serebriakoff also executed works alone, generally watercolors of castles or estates commissioned by their owners. His work shows the same attention to detail.