Girl in a Sports Shirt
1932
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Location in museum
The Benois Wing
Open the panorama of the hall in the virtual tour
Room 80 - Period Early 20th century
- CategoryPortrait
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Girl in a Sports Shirt won a gold medal at the World Fair in Paris in 1937. One of the most famous works of Soviet art, it was regarded as a landmark in the artist’s oeuvre. Alexander Samokhvalov recalled: «It was a special joy to paint images of my contemporaries in those years.» The painting was acclaimed by fellow artists and critics alike, while the heroine was hailed as a «Soviet Mona Lisa» at the Exposition Universelle. The artist depicts Yevgenia Adamova, a teacher and activist who retained her freshness and vitality all her life. She is a typical Soviet citizen of the 1930s — spontaneous, enthusiastic and purposeful. Samokhvalov confirms his ideal of a simple beauty not only in his model, but also in the painting — austere, laconic and elegant.
The clear architectonics of the composition, broad painting, frescolike texture and dynamic image contain features of monumentality. Girl in a Sports Shirt embodies the artist’s concept of the era and «a remarkable contemporary, the sort of girl who did not exist before.» Russian Museum: From Icons to the Modern Times. Palace Editions, St Petersburg, 2015. P. 347.