N. N. Zeddeler and A. P. Somova-Zeddeler: the forgotten names of early 20th century Russian art. Japonism in Russian printmaking at the beginning of 20th century

Abstract

The term japonism refers to a movement within 20th-century Russian art that has so far been insufficiently explored. In the meantime, its popularity at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries coincided with the extraordinary blossoming of Russian color printmaking. N. N. Zeddeler and A. P. Somova were among those artists, who, along such revered masters like A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva and V. D. Falileeva, made a substantial contribution to the development of this art style. To date, their work has not received close attention from researchers. Likewise, there is no literature that would provide a systematic analysis of their legacy, save for brief mentions in the periodic press of that period or publications dedicated to exhibitions of 1900-1910s, in which the artists took part. N. N. Zeddeler and A. P. Somova-Zeddeler were well-known in the Russian and European artistic circles at the beginning of the century. Having acquired their education in Munich and Paris, they produced an oeuvre that fit perfectly into the context of early 20th century art and added essential touches to the aesthetic vision of the world emerging at that time. However, the work of these masters was not met with the appreciation it deserved and was eventually forgotten. It is worth noting that the task of mapping out the full biography of both artists appears to be extremely challenging due to a variety of reasons: their departure from artistic practice after the outbreak of the First World War, fragmentary and meager archival material, a small number of works that have survived till our time, the tragic and difficult fate of N. N. Zeddeler and A. P. Somova-Zeddeler… Thus, the purpose of the article is to fill in one of the gaps in the Russian history of art of the 20th century. The author examines the engravings by N. N. Zeddeler and A. P. Somova-Zeddeler from the collection of the Pushkin Museum created between 1900 and 1910, which were previously not studied by researchers.