Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova, 1881-1962

Sir John Rothenstein, Director of The Tate Gallery, London (acquired as a gift from the artist in 1956)
Fischer Fine Art Limited, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1976

London, The Tate Gallery, on periodic display between 1956 and 1976
London, Leeds City Art Gallery, Larionov and Gontcharova, September, 1961, no. 123 (traveling exhibition)
New Rochelle, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, Russian Avant-garde Art from the Schreiber Collection, September-October, 1984, no. 14
Storrs, The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Russian Avant-garde Art from the Schreiber Collection, January-March, 1986
New Rochelle, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, The Russian Experiment: Master Works and Contemporary Works, September-October, 1990

Leeds City Art Gallery, Larionov and Gontcharova, London, 1961, illustrated
Jennifer Roth, Russian Avant-garde Art from the Schreiber Collection, New York, 1984, illustrated
Alla Rosenfeld, The Russian Experiment: Master Works and Contemporary Works, New York, 1990, p. 7

Oil on original canvas. The surface is a little dirty and covered with a layer of varnish. The canvas is slightly buckled. A minor paint loss has occurred to the lower left corner and another has occurred to the right of center. Under UV no retouches are visible, though the varnish prevents a conclusive analysis. Held in a gold painted wood frame with cloth slip. Unexamined out of frame.
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The present work is from the collection of Sir John Rothenstein, former Director of The Tate Gallery where the piece was hung on periodic display. Mary Chamot, Goncharova expert and Tate curator, considered this work to be "a first-rate little picture and absolutely typical of the work [Goncharova] was doing around 1919-20," which Chamot considered to be Goncharova's best period. By 1920 Goncharova had permanently settled in Paris with her partner Mikhail Larionov. This period of her life is often associated with the bright theatrical designs she produced for Diaghilev, yet this still life is one of several works which show her sustained interest in modernist styles. Goncharova's late style cannot be described as conforming to any one school, but was informed by her earlier experiments with Cubism, Futurism, Neo-primitivism, and Rayonism. In the offered work, the juxtaposition of swollen, almost biomorphic arcs with sharply defined white outlines creates an illusion of collage that is heightened by the restrained use of a sombre palette. Although unbroken bold lines are characteristic of her highly structural canvases, it is rare to see such a stark example of her love for simple form. The intentionally crude style also reflects her and Larionov's shared interest in lubki, early woodcut prints, and a revival of old media which was also practiced by members of Die Brücke, a German Expressionist school.