Portrait of Anna Akhmatova

It's Sunday so it's time for our special monthly partnership with the State Russian Museum's collection.  : ) Enjoy!

Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova (Gorenko) was a poetess and leading figure of the Silver Age, a period of Russian culture covering approximately 1890–1917. This period, sometimes referred to as a "romantic" one, is usually contrasted with the classical period of Russian culture—its Golden Age, the Age of Pushkin.

This portrait is one of the finest works in Nathan Altman's oeuvre. It was inspired by Anna Akhmatova's poetry, the artist's acquaintance with the poetess in Paris in 1911, and their meetings at the Stray Dog cabaret in St Petersburg. Anna Akhmatova is depicted as many contemporaries remembered her, a melancholy young woman, tall and slim, with a sharp profile and a fringe. Working on the portrait in his studio on the Tuchkov Embankment, Altman rejected a concrete setting. The poetess is depicted against a landscape of shining crystals, symbolizing the world of sublime and abstract dreams.

P.S. Go on Roman Holidays! Here are Italian landscapes seen through the eyes of Russian artists.