The Italian singer Francesco Tamagno (1851–1905) often toured in Russia, performing primarily at the Bolshoi Theater and the Italian Opera in St. Petersburg. In 1891, he performed the part of Othello in the eponymous opera by G. Verdi on the stage of the Russian Private Opera in Moscow. For his portrait, Serov turns to theatrical stylisation, to a dialogue with the old masters – Titian, Rembrandt – which will be further developed in the painter’s art. The model’s headgear and warm Titian colours bring to mind Venetian culture. The non finito (unfinished) pictorial technique used by Serov for the figure emphasises the expressiveness of a carefully modelled face. The hand gesture is cut off by the frame edge, allowing the viewer to shift attention from the external motion to the motion of the soul. Serov achieves a special expressiveness in the model’s passionate faraway gaze. For that end, he slightly lowered the outer corners of the eyelids and, on the contrary, raised the singer’s eyebrows. Satisfied with the way the effect of a luminous face turned out in the portrait, Serov asked K.A. Korovin: “Do you feel that this person has a golden voice?”
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow