Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova, 1902 Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865-1911)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

After adding your artwork to the shopping cart, you will be able to check the delivery price using the Estimate Shipping and Tax tool.

The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

That white dog is no accessory. Planted upright on the upholstered seat, with black eyes and a slightly accusing muzzle, it almost outfaces Princess Zinaida Yusupova herself. Beside it, she sits in a pale, flowered gown that seems to have settled around her like foam, one hand resting lightly in her lap, the other lowered toward the animal. A small black shoe peeps from beneath the hem – a tiny, worldly punctuation mark in all that whiteness.

Valentin Serov painted Portrait of Princess Zinaida Yusupova in 1902, as part of his portraits of the Yusupov family, and the setting is her country house at Arkhangelskoe near Moscow. Luxury is everywhere, but it is not noisy. Gilded frames shimmer on the grey wall. Floral upholstery rises behind her in a soft curve. Pink, cream, gold, and grey make the room feel almost scented – wax polish, warm fabric, perhaps the faint powder of an aristocratic interior kept beautifully still. Then comes that deep green bodice, cut by the black choker: two firm notes that prevent the whole thing from dissolving into prettiness.

Serov knew society portraiture, as Sargent did, but he is less theatrical here, less eager to dazzle. Valentin Serov gives her rank without making her perform it. Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova, the last great heiress of an old Russian aristocratic line, was admired by him for her intelligence and unforced manner, and this is just what the painting preserves. Her face is open, even a little tired; the cheeks are warmed with rose, while the mouth withholds the easy smile expected of such a room. One might imagine that she has just paused in conversation, listening more sharply than politeness requires.

Look at the paint around the frames on the wall: gold is not meticulously described but dabbed, flicked, and dragged into place, so that splendour becomes an impression rather than an inventory. Elsewhere the surface has a cool, enamelled poise, especially in the pale dress and exposed shoulders, yet the brush remains alive. Depth is oddly compressed. The sofa, the pictures, the dog, the princess – all seem pressed close to us, as if the air in the room had weight.

For Russian fin-de-siècle portraiture, this matters. Serov takes the official grand portrait and quietly removes its stiffness. At the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, the painting still feels socially exact but emotionally unsettled. Rank sits here in silk and lace; personality slips through in the tilt of the head, the guarded eyes, and the watchful little dog who refuses to flatter anyone.