Background

Izzat Seyidova was born on November 20, 1910, in Kharkiv, Russian Empire (currently is on the territory of Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine). She was a daughter of Alibey Mir Seyfaddin oglu and Olga Yakovlevna, both doctors.

Education

Izzat Seyidova relocated with her family from Kharkiv where she was born to Baku at the age of one. Izzat was raised in a family of intellectuals. Her parents were doctors and her grandfather, Mir Seyfaddin, served as a teacher and translator.

Seyidova attended the art studio of Alexander Ivanovich Kosichkin, Saint Petersburg Academy of Art graduate.

When Seyidova finished the 7th grade in 1927, her parents noticed her passion for art and decided to send her to Azerbaijan State Art School in Baku. During the four-year stint at the institution, Seyidova discovered art under the guidance of A. Kosichkin and M. Gerasimov.

Then, the future artist continued her education in the theatre department of the Russian Academy of Arts (I. Y. Repin Leningrad Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture by the time). She had an opportunity to learn from such well-known artists like R. Frents, Y. Lansere, A. Osmyorkin, and M. Babyshev.

Seyidova graduated in 1938 with a design for ‘Eugene Onegin’ opera as a graduation work.

Career

Izzat Seyidova started her career in 1938 when she joined the staff of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Recognized as a credible artist from the very beginning, Seyidova debuted with set design for “The Barber of Seville” by Rossini. The colorful pictures showing Middle age Spanish city totally correlated with the cheery mood of the opera. Seyidova’s decorations were used during the second staging of the opera at the Theatre during World War II and made a path for the upcoming set design projects of Seyidova made for classical opera.

Designing decorations and costumes for a 1941 opera ‘Queen of Spades’, she tried herself not only in these two domains but as a make-up artist as well. Her brightly colored decorations made a perfect tandem with the music, arias, and arioso of the staging. Even during a hard time of the Second World War Izzat Seyidova managed to produce laconic and simple decorations for such one-act operas like ‘The rage of the people’, ‘Nadejda Svetlova’, and ‘The Motherland’.

After the end of the conflict, Seyidova continued her work in the theatre and collaborated with Fedor Gusak, Anvar Almaszade, and later Ayyub Fataliyev. Her common project with Fataliyev, a new design of U. Hajibeyli’s opera ‘Koroghlu’ had great success while demonstrated at the days of Azerbaijani literature and culture held in Moscow in 1959.

Seyidova worked not only on the stagings by Azerbaijani composers and singers, like ‘Shah Ismayil’ by Muslim Magomayev but also took a hand in the design of several Russian and European operas, including A. Rubinstein’s ‘Demon’, B. Smetana’s ‘The Bartered Bride’, and L. Delib’s ‘Lakme’.

In addition to her activity as a set decorator, Izzat Seyidova realized herself in oil portraiture on canvas as well. ‘The portrait of a woman’, ‘Pioneer girl’, ‘Portrait of poetess Mirvari Dilbazi’, and ‘Portrait of Sidgi Ruhulla’ are among the brilliant examples. Besides, the artist dedicated an important part of her life to teaching composition of decoration at Baku School of Art.

Achievements

• Izzat Seyidova left behind her new and glorious memory in the history of theatre decoration using her unique talent. Her canvases, deeds, scenic and costume sketches immortalized many characters of Azerbaijani, Russian, and European stagings.
  
  A talented educator, Izzat Seyidova taught such artists as Kamil Najafzade, Talat Shixaliyev, Azaf Jafarov, and others.
  
  In 1943, Seyidova was named an Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan.
  
  Seyidova’s decoration and costume sketches and other works are in the permanent collections of such museums like Azerbaijani National Museum of Arts and Azerbaijan State Theatre Museum.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • “Alchinzar” Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “At the Professor’s place” Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “Don Karlos” Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “Donjeron” Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “Kazalina” Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “Masquerade” Decoration Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art )

  • “Qaratoxmaq qadın” Decoration Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “Rosina” Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “Tchekolinsky” Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “Vagif” Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • “Vidadi” Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art )

  • “Window” Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • "Gülnar" Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Husband’s Portrait

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • "Intermedia" Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • "Lakey" Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • "Lakey" Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • "Luisa" Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • "Nina" Decoration Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Pioneer Girl

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Poetess Mirvarid Dilbazi

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • "The Red Poppy" Costume Sketch

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

  • Woman's Portrait

    (Azerbaijan National Museum of Art)

Views

Izzat Seyidova considered theatre as a unified organism which was composed of beautiful music, its harmonic sound and the power of stage provided by light and colors. She divided colors used in a play into three groups, those of the spirit of the play, and of its temporal and spatial locality. All that required from the artist a strong knowledge of history and ethnography.

Personality

Izzat Seyidova was an artist fastidious to her work. She worked seriously through each detail of a costume to achieve the design in the best spirit of the staging.

References

• "Servet" series of albums. The National Heritage project. As part of The National Heritage project implemented by Xalq Bank, Azerbaijan National Museum of Art under the head of Chingiz Farzaliyev prepared the "Servet" series of albums dedicated to the masters of Azerbaijani art.
  2013