Portrait of Maria Yermolova

Portrait of Maria Yermolova (Russian: Портре́т М. Н. Ермо́ловой) is a painting by the Russian artist Valentin Serov, painted in 1905. The size is 224 × 120 cm. The portrait was painted because of the 35th anniversary of the first performance of Maria Nicolayevna Yermolova, an actress of the Maly Theatre. The painting was commissioned and paid for by members of the Moscow literary and artistic circle. The work on the canvas took place in the actress' house at 11, Tverskoy Boulevard. The actress posed for the artist for thirty-two sessions. The great presentation of the portrait took place in 1907 during a banquet held in Yermolova's honour.
During Serov's lifetime, the painting was exhibited at the Tavricheskaya Exhibition (1905), organised by Sergei Diaghilev, and at the Russian Art Exhibition in Paris (1906). The portrait was also exhibited at the collective exhibitions of the Union of Russian Artists. In 1920 the painting became the property of the Maly Theatre. Since 1935 it has been in the State Tretyakov Gallery (Inv. No. 28079). There is also the only sketch of the portrait by Serov that is known to art historians, and it shows that the artist determined the composition, chose the perspective, gave the picture a monumental appearance and decided to emphasise the silhouette of the actress even before beginning the actual work.
Painted during the First Russian Revolution, Yermolova's portrait bears the imprint of the author's worldview, having witnessed Bloody Sunday in January 1905. In the image of the actress, the artist tried to show what he considered to be the ideal features associated with the humanist traditions of Russian culture. Serov's work aroused mixed reactions among the artist's contemporaries, with opinions ranging from complete rejection of the picture to the assertion that the portrait was "the best reflection of the actress's creative personality". The director Sergei Eisenstein, analysing the composition of the canvas, came to the conclusion that the 'montage techniques' used by Serov were the forerunners of the cinematographic technique of working with the frame.
In 1905, Maria Yermolova was preparing to celebrate the 35th anniversary of her debut on the stage. At first it was assumed that the charity performance, timed to coincide with this remarkable date, would take place on 30 January on the stage of the Maly Theatre. However, the dramatic events in the life of the country, connected with the beginning of the First Russian Revolution, led to changes in the plans. Yermolova herself refused to hold any festive events. Then her friends —members of the Moscow Literary and Art Circle, founded on the initiative of the artist Alexander Yuzhin and the poet Valery Bryusov— decided to give Maria Nicolayevna a present: they asked Valentin Serov to paint a portrait of the actress. The commission was given to the artist Ilya Ostroukhov on behalf of the students. He also managed to persuade Yermolova, who was reluctant to "expose herself", to agree to work with Serov.
Serov, at that time one of the most sought-after Russian portraitists, did not accept every commission: he could refuse to work if he did not feel a personal affinity with the future model. In one of his letters, the artist explained his reluctance to paint a portrait of an unknown person as follows: “As a lazy egoist, I choose what is easier for me, what is more at hand". On the other hand, he felt sympathy for Yermolova, whose acting Serov often watched from the audience. Their inner kinship manifested itself in the fact that in the circle of their loved ones they were considered 'the great silence': and the artist and the actress were characterised by little speech and a tendency, even at crowded parties, to be immersed in their own thoughts and worries.
Serov's Moscow apartment did not have a studio in the usual sense. As a result, he usually worked on commissioned portraits in the home of one or other of his models. Only a few paintings, including the portraits of Yermolova and Fyodor Chaliapin, were completed by the artist in his room, called the "Hall". The main work on the portrait of Maria Nicolayevna took place in her house at 11, Tverskoy Boulevard. This mansion, the lower vaults of which were probably built at the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century, was later called "the haunted house" by the staff of the Yermolova Museum. For a long time it had a bad reputation in the Moscow area, according to a legend, a murder motivated by jealousy took place within its walls. In 1889, the mansion was bought by Yermolova's husband, Nicolai Shubinsky. A lawyer, Shubinsky left Russia after the October Revolution; his wife remained in Moscow and lived on Tverskoy Boulevard for the rest of her life.
In the house on Tverskoy Maria Nicolaievna in February–March 1905 Serov posed. The work itself took place in the White Hall on the first floor with mirrors, arches and moulded cornices. The actress and the artist needed thirty-two sessions to create the portrait. In order to give Yermolova's figure a monumental appearance, the artist sat on a low bench; the actress, whose height was slightly above average, towered over the portraitist as if on a pedestal. Afterwards, Serov told the painter and art historian Igor Grabar that it was not easy for him to write 'in this curled up pose, without the opportunity not only to step back but also to move". The work continued in complete silence; only occasionally would Shubinsky enter the room and his appearance would interrupt the session for a few minutes. During the working process —usually the day before the next session— the artist went to see performances with Yermolova; observations of the actress on stage and in life helped Serov to better understand the inner world of Maria Nicolayevna.
Serov, who rarely praised himself, assessed the work on the portrait of Yermolova with the phrase: "But nothing, as if something had come out". The artist was paid 1000 roubles for the painting. (For comparison: the portrait of Nicholas II painted by Serov in 1900 was valued by the client at 4000 rubles, and the portrait of the actress Ida Rubinstein was also paid 4000 rubles). The fee for the portrait of Yermolova was paid to Ilya Ostroukhov, who, according to the preserved receipt, collected the necessary amount from the members of the Literary and Artistic Circle on 27 February 1905. Serov's receipt for the money is dated 28 February.
In 1907, Yermolova, tired of the intrigues of the theatre authorities and dissatisfied with the artistic life of the Maly Theatre, felt overworked and decided to leave the stage (later it turned out that not forever). On 11 March, a banquet was held in the premises of the Literary and Artistic Circle in honor of the actress. Nemirovich-Danchenko, Stanislavsky, Yermolova's colleagues from the Maly Theatre, artists from St. Petersburg and Moscow theaters, other personalities of literature, art and science —in total about three hundred people— were present. A large number of addresses and speeches in honor of the actress were read at the celebration. In particular, Nemirovich-Danchenko said in his speech: "When we recall your stage creations, woven out of the subtlest sufferings, we call you the singer of women's heroism". Then there was a kind of "discovery" portrait of Yermolova by brush Serov. In the darkened hall where the guests had gathered, Yermolova led under the arm of Professor Bazhenov: "... the white curtain fell and the portrait appeared before the audience on the lighted stage. The explosion of applause was an expression of ardent love for the actress and gratitude to the artist". The newspaper Russkiye Vedomosti reported on the event in its issue of 13 March 1907, writing that Yermolova's portrait, "very effectively illuminated and surrounded by laurels", became a decoration of the hall.
By the time of its inauguration, the portrait had already achieved a certain fame. In 1905, the painting was presented at the Tauride Exhibition, organised by Sergei Diaghilev and held at the Tauride Palace from 6 March to 26 September. The following year, the canvas was exhibited in Paris at Serov's exposition, which took part in the Russian Art Exhibition organised by the Society of the Salon d'Automnes. The portrait was also exhibited at the collective exhibitions of the Union of Russian Artists held in the first decade of the 20th century in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Kiev.
The first posthumous exhibition of Serov's work was held in January 1914. At first it was held at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg, but at the beginning of February it moved to Moscowm, to the Art Salon on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. Among the exhibits on display until the middle of March was Portrait of Maria Yermolova (included in the exhibition from the
collection of the Literary Art Circle). In 1920 the Circle ceased to exist and the portrait, together with a part of its collection, became the property of the Maly Theatre.
In 1935, thanks to Mikhail Nesterov, who believed that the portrait was a masterpiece and should be accessible to the masses, the painting was placed in the Tretyakov Gallery under the right of "temporary storage". After the jubilee exhibitions of Serov's paintings held at the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery on the occasion of his 70th birthday, Nesterov used all his influence to ensure that the portrait never left Lavrushinsky Lane, but it was not until 1949 that he succeeded in obtaining a written order from the Committee for Art Affairs to transfer the painting from temporary storage to the collection of the Tretyakov Gallery. At the same jubilee exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery, a sketch of the portrait, executed in pencil and watercolour on paper, was also presented.
In Serov's painting there are no obvious signs of the lady's profession: she does not gesticulate, nor does she try to convey emotions through facial expression or movement. Nevertheless, even an untrained observer can tell that the sitter is an artist. The "clues" in this case are the proud posture, the inner passion, the "subtle shadow of tragedy" and the spiritual content of the picture — qualities that are usually characteristic of people who are able to influence a large audience.
The actress Maria Yermolova was the ruler of thoughts for several generations of spectators. Her authority in the theatre was so great that she had the right to choose her own roles for charity. Yermolova appeared as Maria Stuart in Schiller's play of the same name, as Joan of Arc in The Maid of Orleans, as Catherine in The Storm, in productions of Alexander Ostrovsky's works she played more than twenty roles. Her convincing acting was so strong that, according to Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik's recollections, during the premiere of the play Tatiana Repina by Alexei Suvorina and partners, the audience believed in the actress's real death: "There was something indescribable in the hall: hysterics, screams, calling doctors, taking out women without feelings".
At the time of her portrait, Yermolova was at the height of her artistic powers. She was well-conditioned and had a "stern beauty". Contemporaries, who paid special attention to the actress' appearance, wrote about the light and depth of her "deep-set" brown eyes. The Maly Theatre artist Mikhail Lenin said they were "swimming in the endlessly raging sea, it was such a surge of powerful temperament that I trembled in every nerve", Serov meticulously studied the smallest nuances in the actress's mood and captured the "dominant" shade of her gaze, according to art historian Natalia Radzimovskaya, "it consists of extraordinary enlightenment". The director of the Russian Museum, Vladimir Lenyashin, speaking of the general spirituality of Yermolova's portrait, compared the awe raging in the actress to "the fire flickering in the vessel".
In ordinary life, Yermolova was a reserved person, from the outside, it seemed that her concentration was connected both with constant inner work and an unwillingness to waste her strength and emotions on mundane, down-to-earth things. The artist reflected her creative state offstage — the actress, who does not try to play any role, looks like a person in whom peace and tension, temperament and the ability to control her feelings are combined. Maria Nicolayevna's character is revealed not only in her gaze, but also in the position of her hands, their plastic interlocking, giving dignity and implacability, similar to the dramatic gesture of one of the figures in Rodin's sculpture The Burghers of Calais. If some of Serov's other portraits of women can be compared stylistically to subtle, lyrical short stories, the painter Igor Grabar remarked of the picture of Yermolova that 'before you stands the real drama, even tragedy".
The black velvet dress that Yermolova wore to pose for Serov was made in the workshop of Nadezhda Lamanova, a trendsetter who became famous as a high-society dressmaker and then as a theatre artist. She learned the secrets of the trade in Paris and opened a fashion salon in Moscow — not far from where Yermolova lived: at 10 Tverskoy Boulevard. In her work, which resembled that of a sculptor, Lamanova used the 'piecing method', in which a long piece of fabric draped over the client's figure was attached with dozens of pins. This is how the sketch of the future dress was born. Nadezhda Petrovna, despite the requests of her clients, never sewed herself, considering her main task to be the creation of an image, ideas invented by Lamanova and brought to life by the employees of her salon. Yermolova was not the only woman who entered the history of Russian painting in a dress "by Lamanova". In 1911, for example, Konstantin Somov painted a portrait of Yevfimiya Ryabushinskaya in a dress that had also been made in Nadezhda Petrovna's studio. The fashion designer is mentioned in Marina Tsvetaeva's lines: This goddess is marble. / To dress up by Lamanova".
For Serov, painting the dress Yermolova wore was a special and very difficult task: in order not to tire and distract the actress, the artist periodically worked without her as a model — during some sessions her outfit was put on a similarly proportioned mannequin. It was important for the artist to mark the limits of the "sculptural" contour, while at the same time showing the texture of the fine velvet. Serov painted the dress with an ordinary brush in multidirectional strokes, using black paint to which he added small amounts of blue, green and brown. The 'modelling' of the actress' figure was also due to the lighting: it is distributed from right to left in the painting. The illuminated folds of the dress were created on a black background using "liquid whitewash". An important role was also played by the train: thanks to the hem flowing along the floor and its reflection, there was an effect of "artificial lengthening" — the image of Yermolova was visually enlarged and the silhouette of the actress acquired monumentality.
The only pieces of jewellery that blended harmoniously with the black velvet were the actress's pearl earrings and the pearl necklace around her neck. The artist did not emphasise the texture of the pearls, believing that their shimmering colours corresponded naturally with the lighting on the walls, and the shape of the necklace matched the curved lines of the White Room. According to Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik's recollections, she had the opportunity to meet Yermolova in concert halls: "She would leave in a black velvet dress with a string of pearls around her neck, just as Serov portrayed her in his portrait".
Serov had a friendly relationship with the designer of the black velvet dress, Nadezhda Lamanova. He visited her studio, listened to lectures on modern fashion, made sketches of models. The artist tried to paint a portrait of Nadezhda Petrovna at least twice. At the beginning of 1911 he managed to make a coloured pencil sketch, but the sessions were interrupted by Lamanova's trip abroad. The work was resumed in the autumn of the same year. On the evening of 21 November, according to the playwright Sergei Savvich Mamontov, Serov "made his last strokes on this portrait and in general it was already finished": there was probably only one session. The next morning, the 46-year-old painter died. On his coffin was placed, among other things, a wreath from Maria Yermolova with the inscription: "Eternal memory to the glorious artist".
The Tretyakov Gallery has a sketch of Yermolova's portrait. It is the only sketch known to art historians, executed on paper in graphite pencil and watercolour. On Serov's suggestion, the artist first decided to emphasise the actress's silhouette: it is dark against a light background, and the lines themselves are strictly defined. At the same time, the expression of Maria Nicolayevna's face has not yet been seen. In the sketch, the artist determined the composition and the point of view, choosing the angle from below. In further work Serov changed the angle of the head (in the painting it is more than three-quarters) and made a more refined line of the shoulders. The sketch version shows that the decision to lengthen the figure of the actress was made later by the artist — in the drawing Yermolova looks more squat than in the painting. The sketch shows that the artist began to work on the background and other details that define the space of the canvas at a later stage.
In the final version, each detail serves as an element in the realisation of the whole idea. The white room in which the actress posed has strict architectural forms; no signs of 'everyday life', which could be perceived as something accidental and transient, were put on the canvas. The silhouette of the actress and the general background required a certain size and proportion. Serov chose a format of 224 × 120 cm (the height is almost twice the width). The height of the floor plays an important role. In order to give the figure of the actress a monumental appearance, the artist chose an angle from which the "base of the monument" can be seen, i.e. a high floor. Like the walls, it is painted 'very fluidly', in some places there are not even brushstrokes. This is a deliberate technique to ensure that the background does not distract from Yermolova's face and figure. Mirrors visually expand the space, adding "depth and airiness" to the painting. The same purpose is served by the arches, the shape of which corresponds to the lines of Yermolova's head and hands. The canvas is not monochrome, but the colour scheme is integral, combining various shades of grey, brown and black: "the black is dark blue, green and brown; the grey wall shimmers with violet; the floor is painted with ochre, bluish and greenish strokes". Serov himself ordered an oak frame for Yermolova's portrait after making her sketch. He also expressed the wish to protect the painting under glass.
In 1935, Sergei Eisenstein saw Yermolova's portrait at an exhibition in the Tretyakov Gallery. The director had never seen Maria Nicolayevna on the stage, but after seeing the portrait he agreed with Stanislavsky's earlier assessments. Speaking of the actress' artistic abilities, he noted her temperament, sensitivity, "great nervousness and the inexhaustible depth of her soul". According to Eisenstein, when he saw Serov's painting, he was seized by "a very special feeling of exaltation and inspiration", which he could not immediately explain because the portrait was "extremely modest in colour". <...> almost dry in the austerity of the pose. <...> almost primitive in the distribution of patches and masses. <...> devoid of entourage and props". The portrait evoked such an emotional response in many viewers, but it was Eisenstein who first pointed out the particular compositional means by which Serov was able to show the power of "inspired ascent" inherent in Yermolova.
This is a montage technique that combines four different perspectives, allowing the model's silhouette to be seen from different points and effectively dividing the figure into four frames (see illustration). The visual division of the portrait is achieved by the line connecting the floor to the wall, the frame of the mirror and the line connecting the wall to the ceiling reflected in the mirror. Serov chose different 'shooting points' for all the pictures: the lower part of Yermolova's figure (the first picture) he painted as if he were shooting from above, the kneeling figure —from a straight angle, the waist figure— slightly from below, and the close-up of the head, from the lowest point. Yermolova's face in the last picture is set against the background of the ceiling reflected in the mirror — the artist inviting the viewer to look up. Serov combined these angles and fixed them together on the canvas — their successive viewing creates an effect of monumentality and inspiration. Thanks to the change of perspective, the viewer's gaze gradually moves across the painting from bottom to top, as if in slow motion, with the simultaneous impression of the viewer's ("camera's") movement from top to bottom, "to the feet" of the depicted figure. The effect is further enhanced by the artist's spatial and lighting choices. From the first to the fourth frame, there is an expansion of space with a simultaneous dominance of the model's image within it; each new frame has an increasing level of illumination of Yermolova's face relative to the background. This achieves the effect of 'increasing illumination and spiritualisation' of the actress's image.
According to Eisenstein, Serov developed this technique intuitively, which "in no way detracts from the strict regularity" of his composition. The principles established in the portrait of Yermolova already transcend the boundaries of painting: they are the precursors of cinema, Eisenstein noted. Art historian Vladimir Lenyashin found the work's cinematic classification controversial:
In the portrait of Yermolova, painted by the mature master, researchers find echoes of the artist's earlier creative endeavours. For example, the accentuated silhouette of the actress's figure recalls the portraits of Isaac Levitan and Varvara Musina-Pushkina that Serov painted in the 1890s. The accentuation of the contours recalls the works of 1903, which are part of the so-called "Yusupov cycle". The rigour of the lines and the thoroughness of the model's staging echo the constructive ideas embodied in the image of the collector Mikhail Morozov.
At the same time, despite its connection with Serov's previous experience, Yermolova's portrait is so unique that the art historian Vladimir Lenyashin used the word ''enigma'' to describe it. Thus, the difference in approach, including psychological, becomes apparent when comparing the picture of Yermolova with the portrait of Zinaida Yusupova painted three years earlier. If one painting conveys the impression of "social courtesy", the other shows the inner intensity of feelings; if the heroine of one portrait is included —"almost on an equal footing"— in the world of surrounding things, the other is clearly detached from the domestic space. Even the artist's attitude to the creation of these paintings was different: when working with Yusupova, Serov seemed to try to avoid overestimating the princess's image, while during the sessions with the actress he intuitively set himself a different task: "Is enough lifted, elevated?"
Serov's artistic development was marked by the motto of his world outlook In the search for man, which meant the artist's movement towards an ethical ideal. He tried to show the depth of human personality as early as 1894, when he worked on the portrait of the writer Nicolai Leskov. Leskov's portrait is not a ceremonial one like Yermolova's, but rather a chamber portrait, but they are united by the artist's desire to reveal the rich inner life of his heroes. In Serov's portrayal of Leskov, Leskov is a Russian intellectual painfully searching for answers to "eternal questions"; his gaze reveals incessant self-analysis. The same deep spiritual work —"akin to ancient catharsis"— is seen in the eyes of Yermolova. The change in the image of the lyrical hero was gradual for Serov — over the years, it was not the freshness and charm of youth that became more attractive to him, but "the subtle movements of a heart wise in life".
A significant part of Serov's creative heritage are portraits of theatre personalities: not only those of Yermolova, but also of Vasily Kachalov, Ida Rubinstein, Konstantin Stanislavsky, Angelo Masini and many others". Serov's interest in the theatre is not accidental: in his childhood he saw theatre posters in the study of his father, the composer Alexander Serov; in his teenage years in Abramtsevo, he showed himself not as an artist but as an artist in the Mamontovsky circle. Later, when he became close to Sergei Diaghilev, he worked on posters for his Russian Seasons, drew sketches for the curtain for Michel Fokine's ballet Scheherazade. For Serov and his contemporaries —figures of the Silver Age— the theme of the mask was relevant: carnivals, masquerade balls and theatrical performances were very popular among the creative intelligentsia of the time. The mask, as an emotive, playful element of everyday life, was considered a way of human self-expression.
The theme of the mask is not absent from Serov's work, but it is presented in a different way from that of his fellow painters Konstantin Somov, Mikhail Vrubel, Lev Bakst and others. As Valery Bryusov noted, "Serov's portraits tear off the masks people put on and reveal the innermost meaning of the face". At the same time, the artist could not stay away from the trends of the time. Perhaps this is why the portrait of Yermolova combines two different cultural layers: on the one hand, Serov removes the mask from his model and presents the true essence of the person to the public; on the other hand, he creates the image of a tragic actress with the cult "priest's mask". The portrait thus combined the real face and the mask as "the essence of the tragic actor's creativity".
In 1905, in addition to Yermolova, Serov painted portraits of Fyodor Chaliapin and Maxim Gorky. This group of works, as well as the portrait of the novelist Leonid Andreev painted two years later, are united by the presence of dark, almost mournful silhouettes — the art historian Gleb Pospelov called them "figures in black". The appearance of a number of paintings that reflect the artist's tense and dramatic mood is probably linked to Serov's inherent "sense of Russia". If in his early works (e.g. in Girl with Peaches) art historians find an important world view of the author, positively related to the "flourishing manorial way of life", then the canvases painted by the artist during the First Russian Revolution bear the stamp of "Russia darkened". Serov reacted strongly to the events of 9 January 1905, from the window of the Academy of Arts he watched the crowd clash with the troops on the Fifth Line of Vasilyevsky Island. According to Ilya Repin, from that moment on, "his sweet character changed abruptly". Together with Polenov, Serov prepared a letter to the Council of the Academy, in which he reminded that "the person who has the supreme command over these troops is at the head of the Academy of Arts". On 10 March, while working on the portrait of Yermolova, Serov submitted his resignation from the Academy. His resignation was accepted in May 1905.
The "darkness" associated with Serov's mood at the time is particularly evident in the portraits of artists whose souls, in moments of high tension, Serov, according to Pospelov's interpretation, perceived as something akin to the element of Russia. Both Yermolova and Chaliapin are portrayed by the artist at the moment when they are in the "phase of creative ascent". One gets the feeling that the actress and the singer are ready to go on stage; they are already tuned to a certain wave and resemble vessels filled with water that must not spill before the deadline. Chaliapin, struggling to contain his emotions, instinctively tries to free his throat from the concert collar that is strangling him; his eyes are dark with an excess of emotion. Yermolova, too, is in a state of "undischarged tension", she is already outside ordinary life, in another dimension; with her entire appearance, the actress creates an invisible but impregnable boundary that separates the artist from the ordinary spectator. "Tragic Russia seems to be listening to itself in these portraits, listening with its belly".
All the "figures in black" in Serov's art are lonely: the pictures of Chaliapin and Gorky are painted against a completely deserted background; Leonid Andreev seems to be immersed in darkness; the graphically precise lines of the wall and mirrors in the portrait of Yermolova are designed to focus attention on the powerful face and silhouette of the actress. The demonstration of the scale of personality is achieved, among other things, by the format of the canvases: the portraits of Yermolova and Chaliapin (235 × 133 cm) are "pictures in the size of nature". The vertical form of the canvases, on which the actress and the singer are painted at full height, from head to toe, make the paintings "true monuments to the historical significance of the artist". Both the subjects of the portraits —Yermolova and Chaliapin— stand with their backs straight and erect; the ability to maintain this posture under all circumstances was one of Serov's inner attitudes that determined his attitude towards people. A few years after the portrait was completed, in 1911, Chaliapin, performing at the Mariinsky Theatre, knelt with the chorus during the performance of God Save the Tsar! Serov had a very negative reaction to this situation and even stopped greeting Fyodor Ivanovich at meetings.
Yermolova's portrait received mixed reviews from the artist's contemporaries. People from the actress's inner circle thought that Maria Nicolayevna looked older than she was and "not as beautiful as in life". According to Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik, relatives also said it was "unlike", and Yermolova herself found the picture too ceremonial: "She would like to see more simplicity in it". Art historians suggest that this perception was probably due to the fact that Serov painted Yermolova in her old age, trying to preserve her inner essence and "eternal features". Ilya Repin, who was considered to be Valentin Alexandrovich's teacher, reported in a letter to the art historian Vladimir Stasov, after seeing the exhibits of the Tavricheskaya exhibition, that Serov had "annoyed him with the last works". Unflattering was the review and the poet Ivan Aksyonov, who was not enthusiastic about Yermolova's artistic abilities. He remarked: "She always played belly up. So belly up and standing on Serov's portrait". The art critic Nicolai Wrangel, who wrote about the exhibition in the journal Art (No. 5-7, 1905), disagreed with them. In his opinion, Serov was represented there "as never before, in the brilliance of his talent", and the portrait of Yermolova — "such an amazing psychology, such virtuoso skill, such simplicity and grandeur of colour, which he may not have achieved in any portrait yet". The art historian Igor Grabar in his publication in Vesy (№ 1, 1908) called the colours of the painting "heavy, dull grey and colourless black".
The literary critic Sergei Durylin was among those who accepted the painting: he wrote that the portrait of Yermolova was "the best reflection of the creative personality" of the actress. He saw in Serov's work her "high nobility" and "quiet grandeur". The artist Mikhail Nesterov considered the picture of Yermolova "a perfect work". According to Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik, if it had been a portrait of Yermolova in her old age, "the best at that time would have been Rembrandt, as before she had been ingeniously portrayed by Serov". Architect and painter Fyodor Shechtel admitted that looking at Yermolova's portrait he had a feeling of "first cold, then hot": "You feel that the work in front of you is not the work of human hands. <...> Serov ingeniously spiritualised her, capturing in this portrait the highest spiritual qualities of her artistic creativity. It is a monument to Yermolova! From this canvas she continues to set hearts on fire". The son of Savva Mamontov's patron, Sergei Savvich, noted that even an ignorant spectator who does not know who is depicted in the picture will immediately guess that it is "an amazingly brilliant dramatic actress". The theatre artist Alexander Golovin claimed that when he looks at the picture of Maria Nicolayevna Brush Serov, he hears the actress. In his opinion, the artist managed to convey Yermolova's voice on a successful canvas.
Serov's artistic training began in the 1880s and coincided with the training of such painters as Vrubel, Nesterov, Levitan and others. He was particularly close to Konstantin Korovin, who wrote: "We need pictures <...> to which the soul opens". In similar creative aspirations recognised and Serov, who at that time was far from the "heavy" painting: "I wish, I want joy and I will write only joyful things". Paintings Girl with Peaches and On the Balcony. Spaniards Leonora and Ampara", painted by these artists in the second half of the 1880s, are similar in style: they combine people, nature and interiors. Sometimes Serov and Korovin created pictures of the same model (for example, Masini and Morozov), and they worked almost simultaneously on the early portraits of Chaliapin (acquaintance with whom took place in the Mamontovsky circle).
Art historians note a certain stylistic similarity between Serov's portraits, painted at the turn of the century, and the works of his teacher, Ilya Repin. However, the general mood of their paintings is different. According to Vladimir Lenyashin, "Repin's portraits are uplifting, while Serov's paintings are always a little heartbreaking". Despite his warm attitude towards his pupil, Repin did not always accept his paintings. He found some of Serov's portraits rough and careless. The portrait of Yermolova bears the imprint of the various stages of development and influences through which Serov passed. Sergei Diaghilev, for example, believed that his work combined ethical (Peredvizhniki) and aesthetic (Mir Iskusstva) epochs. Against the background of these traditions, the events of the First Russian Revolution became the worldview "catalyst" for the portrait of Yermolova. According to Dmitry Sarabianov, the "social dimension" of Serov's style acquired monumentality and was finally formed in this period.
Yermolova had already attracted the attention of artists as a model. Victor Bykovsky (1874), Sergei Yaguzhinsky (1893), Leonid Pasternak (1895) worked on her portraits in the 19th century. Serov, unlike other painters, gave the image of the actress a social, humanistic content. In Serov's portraits, including Yermolova, researchers found original spatial concepts and compositional principles. His ideas about angles, colours and textures influenced the work of the next generation of artists.
It is possible that it was Serov's canvas that prompted the appearance of Mikhail Nesterov's painting Portrait of O. M. Nesterova. This work, painted in 1906, has a clear reference to Yermolova. The heroines of both paintings (Nesterov poses his daughter) are depicted at full height, their figures seeming to be raised on a pedestal, black silhouettes painted very clearly. There is a similarity in the way the heads are turned (though in different directions) and in the position of the hands. A year before he started working on his daughter's portrait, Nesterov saw Yermolova at a historical art exhibition. The portrait of the actress made a great impression on the artist. In terms of mood, the works of the two artists are different, but they use the same techniques.
In 2015, the State Tretyakov Gallery organised a special exhibition project dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Valentin Alexandrovich Serov. For the jubilee exhibition "the highest achievements of the artist's work" were selected. Among the artist's paintings, which opened the exhibition and were placed on the main exposition line, on the initiative of the organisers were presented portraits that "created his fame" as one of the leading portraitists of Russia. Among them was the Portrait of M. N. Yermolova. In May–June 2016, the painting was displayed in London at the exhibition Russia and Art: the Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky at the National Portrait Gallery. A columnist for the Guardian newspaper called Yermolova's portrait "a virtuoso performance by both actress and artist". The painting was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London in May–June 2016.