Portraits

 

One can notice Alexander’s style search perplexity and his attitude to the relation of portrayal people in early pictorial and graphic portraits. He is interested and absorbed only by really close people. Portrait is a kind of an art research. The drawing is laconic, perception is integral and performance is light. The works are extremely plain. They tend to have a study character. However, they were performed in a classic portrait painting traditions.

Portrait painting is not an end in itself. It is a preliminary stage in man’s character concept perception. Alexander frequently painted from life. The majority of works were gifted to the people who sat for. Daughter’s watercolor portrait has been remained. It was performed with reverence and love. Mother’s portrait is drawn in soft pencil. The features of the character such as gentleness, patience, maternal kindness and will power are reproduced with the help of appearance similarity.

In spite of a great number of portrait works the artist himself did not consider this genre as his own one assuming that it did not correspond to his temperament and character. Perhaps that was the reason of the portrait absence at his exhibitions.

There were a lot of self-portraits at Sheltunov’s. As a rule, up-to-chest images with a stare predominate in watercolor canvases. Graphic portraits are expressive as they are very precise and ironic.

Self-portraits can be divided into two basic groups for convenience: professional (the artist portraits himself at work) and personality (which shows author’s moral and psychological features). One of the last canvases which is significant for Sheltunov’s creativity he is depicted against Irkutsk scenery background. In the describable work the master combined the peculiarities of both types. There is favorite Irkutsk behind him as the artist was inspired by the city and it became the main creativity genre. But the master himself is depicted in the center of the picture. He tried to reveal his attitude to life and his character.

The text writer: Iraida Fedchina