Two female portraits by Yudel Pen given new life by Vitebsk restorer
VITEBSK, 10 June (BelTA) – Two female portraits are the final paintings from the collection of the famous Vitebsk artist Yudel Pen to be restored by Yuri Kegelev, an artist‑restorer at the Vitebsk Local Lore Museum. He has been working on the collection since 1992. The restorer told a BelTA correspondent about the condition the canvases were in, their unique features, and when visitors will be able to see them at the Art Museum.
The paintings depict V.V. Nasakina‑Pisarenko (the portrait was painted in 1925) and an unknown young woman. “These two portraits complete my restoration of Pen’s entire collection. Our museum holds 160 of his paintings and 12 graphic works. They all came to us in 1992 in the same condition they were in when evacuated in 1941. Almost all of them were in a critical state: cut, folded into four, rolled into tubes, and placed between sheets of paper. For example, there were double portraits cut in half to make them easier to fold and transport. Now they are displayed next to each other as separate paintings, but expert analysis has shown that they originally formed a single whole. It took me two years just to sort through the collection. These particular female portraits were on their original surviving canvases, and as a specialist, I found it fascinating to study their reverse sides as well,” the restorer explained.
