Demon and Tamara

This beautiful ceiling mural has been restored and was seen by the artists family in 2006. It is in the Music Room at Serednikovo Manor Home and delights patrons while they listen to piano concerts there. The Serednikovo Manor is in the suburbs of Moscow to the North and was the home for Mikhail Yurevich Lermontov, noted Russian poet.   The Demon and Tamara story is an old Russian Tale. The mural can be seen in all it's beautiful color by logging onto: http://www.justgorussia.co.uk and click on Serednikovo.

The painting previous to this one (#69)is the Toilette of Venus and is also a ceiling mural that Stember painted at an unknown location in Moscow.  Both of these murals were featured in a magazine article acquired by the family. 

While the family of the painter visited Russia in 2001, they were able to travel to Serednikovo and learn about this ceiling mural from the docent there.  She told the story of the Demon and Tamara and the angel carrying the soul of Tamara to heaven.  In 1904 the music room in which this mural was painted was turned into a movie theatre.  At the end of 1980, the painting was cracked because age and because a protective layer of wax had been applied to it.  The docent stated they had an extremely difficult time finding an artist who could restore it.  It proved to be even more difficult because the wax was also on the walls.  It took one month for each square meter of restoration.  Vera Ivanovna Firsanova was the one who ordered the painting for the celebration of the Centennial of Lermontov who was a great poet.  Rachmaninov played in the music room.  

The date of the ceiling is uncertain. The estate's own published history says Vera Firsanova commissioned it in 1890, while the artist dictionaries place it in the mid-1910s, which fits the Lermontov centennial of 1914 that the docent described. Earlier versions of this catalog gave 1904, a year no source supports.

Stember was originally chosen to paint the Demon and Tamara because he had done other ceilings: 'The Toilette of Venus' and 'The Hymn to the Rising Sun.'

This painting was also made into a postcard in a series by Stember.  Some were sold to fund a charity named 'Lubenskoye Society About the Care of Beggars. Postcards of Stember's paintings can be found on various antique postcard websites by searching under 'Stember'.