Portrait of S.V. Rakhmaninov by K.A. Somov (1925)
The S. Rakhmaninov portrait was the result of peculiar competition by two artists who belonged to the “World of Art” art association, Boris Kustodiev and Сonstantin Somov. As the diary of the latter shows, in 1922-1923 artists painted works on agreed subjects for each other and exchanged them. After Somov's departure from Russia in 1923, this competition was continued. In particular, the general features are revealed by the comparative analysis of two portraits: the opera singer Feodor Chaliapin, painted by Kustodiev in 1921 (and repeated a year later), and Somov's portrait of composer Sergei Rakhmaninov (artist depicted it already in France in 1925). This portrait and the circumstances of its creation, which formerly eluded the attention of art historians, are analyzed in this article.