Zhilinsky, Dmitry: Double Portrait: Peter and Irene Ludwig (1981)

Peter Ludwig got acquainted with Dmitry Zhilinsky on one of his first trips to Russia, and shortly afterwards invited him on a two-month study trip to Aachen. As compensation, the artist painted the portrait of the art collector couple, which they kept in their home for a long time, owing to its personal nature. Zhilinsky studied in the second half of the forties at the Moscow State University of Arts and Industry, and later at the Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute. He is a prominent representative of the so-called ‘severe style” that started in the sixties, bringing a kind of stylistic and ethical turn in realist art. As opposed to the idealistic, heroic conception of Socialist Realism, members of this movement depicted contemporary reality with utmost faithfulness, in a critical tone. Zhilinsky paints his paintings in the technique used in icons: egg tempera. His style bears the traits of Italian Quattrocento and German Renaissance. He has painted several portraits, many of them on commission. “Zhilinsky is convinced that a picture will only impress the viewer when it is executed professionally and with absolute mastery; only under these conditions can it be authentic. His serious relationship with art determines the respectful way he treats his subject.” (Petr Ossovskiy) On one side of the double portrait, Zhilinsky depicted the Ludwigs seated on an antique sofa, surrounded by artworks and publications representing the most treasured pieces of their collection. The other side reveals a much more interesting space, difficult to identify at first glance: the enormous window of the library in Aachen, with a view to the garden, and with details reflected in the glass: books in the library, artworks, and the gothic fragment that the Ludwigs constructed into their house when it was erected in the fifties. The carefully detailed painting represents the models surrounded by valuable objects as true art connoisseurs and patrons, according to the intentions of the clients.