Constantin Somov as a Subject of Omission in the History of Russian Art

Abstract

Konstantin Andreevich Somov (1869–1939) was one of the founders of the St. Petersburg art association “The World of Art”. He belongs to the most significant representatives of Russian art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Even in Soviet times, his art was not completely banned for scientific examination. However, at the present time, Somov’s life and art remain little studied, with all the interest to them from both the researchers and the public. The range of problems discussed in connection with Somov is expanding very slowly. Usually it is assumed that the reason for this is the inertia that has been preserved in Russian art history since Soviet times (the artist left Soviet Russia in 1923 and did not return). However, even now there are issues among researchers that are “not accepted” to touch. These issues are not related to politics, they are avoided to be called. It is about Somov’s homosexuality, which he, at times implicitly, but invariably distinctly, reflected in his works. Without comprehension of this problem, an integral interpretation of Somov’s art is impossible. The article shows how Somov turned into a subject of omission. It also determines its place in Soviet and post-Soviet historiography and exhibition practice. Some mechanisms of censorship and self-censorship within the scientific community are identified and described on the basis of private correspondence between Soviet art historians and artists. The article is written with the involvement of a large number of unpublished sources, including Somov’s testimony about himself; a text of well-known publications is reviewed by comparing them with original manuscripts.