Painting by Anna Lapygina: biographical context, review and interpretation

The article is devoted to the work of the St. Petersburg artist Anna Lapygina. Art criticism has not yet paid attention to the study of her activities. The proposed material corrects this situation. The purpose of the article is to study the ideological and stylistic features of the painter’s works, a detailed examination of a number of her most significant works. The master specializes in the pastel technique. Some technological issues of the artist’s use of this technique are considered in detail. Historical and cultural urban landscape, a child’s portrait are variants of the genres that the artist prefers. The landscape focuses on the specifics of the unique image of the national cultural environment. The interpretation of the portrait genre is also peculiar. In the children’s portrait, the author’s quivering attention to the characters does not turn into feigned sentimentalism and exaggeration. Occasionally, the pastelist devotes time to activities in the field of theatrical and decorative painting. Some of the master’s stage works are of undoubted interest as examples of current trends in modern stage design. The artist is a supporter of metaphorical, conditional «effective scenography», in which the transformed reality carries a significant figurative and semantic load. The article uses the artist’s notes about himself, his work. This allows us to better understand the features of the creative work of our heroine. Achievements of iconological, iconographic, biographical, stylistic methods are used. The illustrations of the article are reproductions of the works of Anna Lapygina, the most representative in the sense that they clearly demonstrate the essential aspects of the personality of the remarkable pastelist and help to form an opinion about her creative image. Acquaintance with the activities of the artist will be important for professionals and art lovers.