Mikhail Vrubel and one of the most painful portraits of his wife Nadezhda

And again a short tour of the world gallery of those paintings that are dear to me. But today is very painful for me.

Michael Vrubel. Well, a lot can be said.

Well, Yes, brilliant theatrical works, frescoes, icons, then-the genius of Russian art Nouveau. "Demon sitting", "Swan Princess", "Demon defeated". And all forget, who for him was Hope Zabela and their son Savvushka. Ah Yes, Hope Ivanovna was his wife, if who not knew. And he painted countless portraits of her. Here "the Swan Princess" is also her. 
 
They met in the beginning of 1896 when Vrubel from Moscow came to Mamontov in St. Petersburg, where the Russian premiere of the Opera-tale Humperdinck "Hansel and Gretel"was to take place. The brothers Grimm, Yes. Savva Ivanovich was very fond of this production, personally translated the libretto and financed the enterprise of the Panayevsky theater, the prima — Tatiana Lyubatovich and her inseparable friend Nadezhda Zabela were to perform. The sets and costumes were ordered by Korovin, but he fell ill, and his order passed to Vrubel. So on rehearsals Mikhail Alexandrovich first time heard, and then and saw Hope, who played role sisters Gretel. She had a soprano voice and he admired it, at first not even seeing her - just listening to her voice. 

All years tell very long, but Yes, they were married, was born son Sawa, in two years he died, Vrubel terminally gone mad, and then and went blind. Yes, mad and blind. We all somehow forget who Vrubel was in the last five years of his life. It is the blind madman.

He died in 1910. This work is called "After the concert" and it is a portrait of Hope painted by him in 1905.

And Yes, she outlived him by three years.