Sirens or Sea Maidens or Sea Nymphs or Mermaids

Arguably one of the most famous of Stember's artwork. Stember's daughter wrote: 'This painting had to be repeated several times at the request of the public.'

The painting was very large as can be seen in the photograph taken at the 25th Anniversary Celebration of Stembers work in Moscow in 1913. (#2) In photograph #21 a partial image of the painting can be seen reflected in a mirror on the wall. On Photo #45, the painting is the background for a picture of an unknown family member.

Several years later, the painting was one in a series made into picture postcards for sale for the charity 'The Kuiniji ( Arkhip Kuindzhi) Society for the benefit of beggars' in Moscow. The family obtained several of these postcards through E-Bay.  The last card was from someone in Bulgaria.

Stember belonged to the Kuinjii Society which was comprised of artists of realism, mostly landscape artists.  Stember noted in his Diary that he left a self-portrait in the care of the society:  See reference below:

'I remembered-for the information of my children-that in Petrograd, at the Kuindji Society, on Gogol street, is my portrait, one of the most successful ones, painted during my last years residence in Petrograd in 1918.  It had been on exhibit in the Winter Palace and was left there with other paintings.  The manager of paintings of the Kuindji Society, Venedict Pavlovich Kuznetsov, was charged to move the portrait from the Palace and to place it in the society's storage.  The portrait is in an oak frame.''   page 177 of his Diary.