Original Portrait of V.I.Lenin has been kept in the Mongolian Modern Art Gallery since it was painted in 1922. Mongolian News Agency MONTSAME in cooperation with the Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery is presenting the Mongolian fine art masterpieces in a series of documentaries. The Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery displays Mongolian fine art and craft masterpieces created since the People’s Revolution in 1921.
As the first part of the series, we are presenting the work “Portrait of V.I.Lenin”. In accordance with the resolution issued by the Government of Mongolia on June 23, 1992, five works are included in the list of Mongolian historical and cultural invaluable heritage, namely “Portrait of V.I.Lenin” by B.Sharav, “After Work” by G.Odon, “Stallion Fight” by O.Tsevegjav, “The Old Horse-Head Fiddle Player” by U.Yadamsuren and “Nomadic Family of Steppe” by N.Tsultem.
When the Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery was separated from the Fine Arts Zanabazar Museum in 1992, “Portrait of V.I.Lenin” was the first exhibit of the Mongolian National Modern Art Gallery.
“Portrait of V.I.Lenin” was created by Sharav Balduu, known as Marzan Sharav in 1922 by the order of General Sukhbaatar.
The work is considered as the first portrait of European person drawn in Asia. The gouache portrait was painted with combined technique of Mongol painting and European painting technique to create distance.
The portrait contains several symbols. Specifically, a world globe behind V.I.Lenin is an expression of a wish that the whole world would know V.I.Lenin. While, Ying-Yang symbols on the two flags present perpetual continuation of V.I.Lenin’s teachings. Moreover, lotuses at the bottom of the portrait symbolize that teachings of V.I.Lenin would flourish like lotus