1901
oil on canvas
62,3 х 70,6

Mika Morozov is a son of M.A.Morozov, an industrialist and patron of arts. The portrait is produced in the impressionist manner. The viewer can feel the child's inner light in each movement, in each detail: his cheeks are flaming, his lips are half open, his eyes are "burning", offset with a sharp brushstroke. By focusing attention on his little subject, Serov pulverizes the space, as it were, with a chaotic play of brushstrokes. The model's fluidity is born out of a composition built on a contrast between the child's figure, arranged vertically, and the diagonal lines of the chair's armrests. Serov superimposes views from above and from below. The boy sits on the edge of a narrow chair, which seems to constrict him; he tries to escape from that confining cramped space as soon as possible. His golden curls and arm, bent like a wing, make the youth look like Cupid. Mika Morozov subsequently became a well-known Shakespearean scholar and theatre critic, a talented teacher of philology.

at 10, Lavrushinsky Lane, Hall 42