Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev

Paris, Galerie J. Charpentier, Alexandre Iacovleff. Peintre attaché à l'Expédition Citroën Central-Asie 3e Mission Haardt Audouin Dubreil... Exposition de Peintures et Dessins, 16 May - 4 June 1933, no.152

Alexandre Iacovleff. Peintre attaché à l'Expédition Citroën Central-Asie 3e Mission Haardt Audouin Dubreil... Exposition de Peintures et Dessins, Paris, 1933, p.11, no.152 listed under 'Irak', Salek Ibn Mohamed, kurde

 

 

The sheet has discoloured and the edges are slightly uneven. There are some minor losses to the top edge and pinholes along the left edge. There are a few nicks above the head and there is some minor creasing in places. There is some minor scattered foxing. There is a layer of light surface dirt. The sheet is attached to the mount along the top edge. Held in a simple wooden frame behind glass. Unexamined out of frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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The present portrait was executed during Yakovlev’s second expedition with the famous French Citroën group, for which he had once again been tasked with recording the peoples, culture and everyday life and landscapes of the countries they passed through. By Yakovlev’s own admission, it was the interesting characters in traditional attire that he most enjoyed drawing, particularly those with distinctive head-dresses. The clothes of the present sitter suggest that Salek Ibn Mahomed was a Baghdadi Kurd, a people whose proud and dignified air Yakovlev found very attractive and markedly different to the rather more simple appearance of the Kurdish nomads in the north. ‘If I hadn’t known that the Baghdadi Kurds who came to pose for me were just porters handling supplies for the expedition’ Yakovlev wrote, ‘I could easily have mistaken them for descendants of the princes of One Thousand and One Nights’ (A.Yakovlev, Putevye zapiski o puteshestvii po Azii v ekspeditsii avtomobil’nogo obshchestva ‘Sitroen’, 25 April 1931).

The present sitter is illustrated in A.Iacovleff, Dessins et peintures d'Asie. Exécutés au cours de l'Expédition Citroën Centre-Asie. Troisième mission G.-M. Haardt. L. Audouin-Dubreuil. Paris: Lucien Vogel, 1934 (fig.1).

We would like to thank Dr Elena Yakovleva, art historian, for providing this catalogue note.