Genre borders in the art of C. Somov

The article is devoted to the problem of distinguishing genres in the works of Russian artist, member of “World of Art” group, Constantin Somov (1869–1939). The main body of the artist's work is not generalized, yet the bulk of his works typifies genre diffusion. Therefore the central themes of Somov's work offered as a basis for genre analysis. Such semantic categories are the everyday life and sexuality, the themes that run through the whole work of the artist. With these two categories lying outside the scope of the analysis generalisation becomes easier. The methodology can be applied to work of the artists close to Somov. The article is written with the attraction of unpublished archive papers from Manuscript Department of Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg.