This book is part of a recent series, “Ocherki visual΄nosti,” published by NLO. The author, Pavel Golubev, has a PhD in art history from Moscow State University (2018). He states in the “Preface” that the book “grew out of” (5) his dissertation on Konstantin Andreevich Somov (1869–1939). Interestingly, this Preface also indicates the relevance of his research to the recent boom in exhibitions and sales of Somov's work, particularly works that have clear erotic/homoerotic content (see his From Museum and Private Collections, St. Petersburg, 24/03/17–14/05/17; Harlequin and the Lady, State Tretiakov Gallery, 23/11/18–19/05/19; On the 150^th Anniversary of [his] Birth, State Russian Museum, 08/08/18–04/11/19; Christies, “The Somov Collection Sale 7537,” 28/11/07; and Christies, “Russian Art Sale,” 04/06/18).

The book title partly refers to a porcelain figurine, The Lady Unmasking, designed by Somov in 1906. This design, representing a woman with a mask in eighteenth century dress, is related to a theme of eighteenth century courtly masquerades and their erotic implications, prominent in Somov's work when he was a member of the Russian Symbolist “World of Art” group in the 1890s–early 1910s, and occasionally reprised in the period 1923–39, after he had fled the nascent Soviet Union to America in 1923.

The “lady” who is “unmasked” in the latter half of the book is the minor Russian artist Elizaveta Mikhailovna Martynova, who posed for Somov's well-known painting, The Lady in Blue (1897–1900, Tretiakov Gallery, Moscow), as well as for a few other works by Somov and other Russian artists. The theme of “unmasking” as projected by Golubev, however, primarily seems to relate specifically to Somov himself—who termed himself a “lady”—mainly in terms of his homosexuality and how this was expressed in his art works (36–39). It also relates to Somov's occasional sexual, or platonic, relationships with women—including Martynova—and eroticized/fantasized representations of her and other women.

The structure of the book is certainly “sketchy,” and idiosyncratic. For a volume implicitly claiming academic credibility, it has no list of illustrations, and the caption for Fig.11 is incomplete. There is no list of references/bibliography, and while there are footnotes, these begin at (1) for each page, so it is very difficult to find/identify the first, full references to the sources. The “Preface” does not explain the overall structure or purpose of the whole book, but does offer clues as to its general focus on Somov's concerns with the erotic. Part 1 explores “Eroticism in the Art of Somov.” Part 2 considers “Images and Motifs of the Otherworldly,” ultimately suggesting that these intimations of the occult were also part of the potentially misogynistic eroticism in Somov's oeuvre. The “Conclusion,” subtitled “The Marquises de Sade,” like the Preface, does not address the curious structure of the book. While it refers to a particular, eponymous set of erotic works by Somov, it muses on the potential impact of the grisly circumstances of WWI and the Bolshevik Revolution on Somov and his work. The actual conclusion drawn seems to be that the Revolutionary period signified to Somov that the “masquerade,” both as an erotic motif in his symbolist work and in relation to the expression of his own sexuality, was over, and although he continued with these motifs into the 1930s, they no longer had any meaningful symbolic significance. This is then followed by the illustrations and the Martynov-Somov correspondence, prefaced by a short essay, “The Lady in Blue.”

Overall, despite its peculiar quirks, the book seems like an interesting—albeit patchily structured—informative and well-researched volume. Moreover, for such a cheap book, the illustrations are mostly of surprisingly good quality. But, I have a caveat concerning possible absence of permission from the State Russian Museum to publish the Martynova-Somov correspondence. The source is referenced, but there is no acknowledgement of permission to publish, which one would expect in a properly scholarly publication.

This issue of permission is crucial. Golubev has already been involved in a scandal for illegally publishing Somov's diaries 1917–23 (2017) and 1923–1925 (2018), which are also copyright controlled by the State Russian Museum. The Museum had first rights to publish them, and he did not ask their permission to publish (see: Natalya Shurenok, “Iskusstvoved suditsa s Russkim muzeem za Somova,” 21/10/19, http://www.theartnewspaper.ru/posts/7447/ and: https://artinvestment.ru/news/artnews/20190918). This incident seems to cast doubt on Golubev's academic probity, and thus on the potential of this publication to be used as a reliable reference resource for scholarly work. Caveat emptor.