Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky, 1868-1945

August Bauman, Riga

Riga, Riga City Art Museum, Exhibition IV., N. P. Bogdanov-Belskii, February 1932, no. 11

Novaya Niva, 13 April, 1926, no. 16, illustrated on the front page

Atpuhta, Riga, no. 381, p. 11, illustrated

Unknown publication, Vozvraschenie Krasavitsi Margarete, circa 2002, illustrated

N.Lapidus, Bogdanov-Belsky, Moscow: Belyi Gorod, 2005, p. 45, illustrated

Original canvas. There is a layer of light surface dirt and minor spots of staining. Fine lines of craquelure in places. Examination under UV light reveals a few minor spots of retouching to the sitter's dress and elsewhere. Held in a gold painted plaster frame and unexamined out of frame.
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Bogdanov-Belsky painted Spring. Portrait of Mme. Irma-Margarita Bauman during the summer of 1925, just four years after he moved permanently to Riga, Latvia. The piece was commissioned by the sitter's husband, August Bauman, who owned a yacht club on the Lielupe river; the artist was friendly with Mr. Bauman, and he stayed at the Bauman residence on the Lielupe shore.

 

The composition depicts Mme. Bauman seated on a grey bench at left, with a beautiful sweeping view of her gardens and the water at right. She wears distinctive fabrics with brilliant patterns, which suggest the elaborate designs of traditional national costume while echoing the many colours of the background landscape. Bogdanov-Belsky invests particular attention in her embroidered blouse, which is delicately painted so that the arms are visible through the transparent fabric, as well as the design of her skirt, which was made from the very same fabric he had depicted in earlier paintings in Russia.

 

The colourful manner of this informal female portrait has been compared to that of French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It reflects the artist's talent for capturing minute qualities of light, which in turn create a real sense of atmosphere. Bogdanov-Belsky was a lauded master of plein air technique, which he learned in Paris while studying under F. Cormon and F. Colarossi, and which he implemented in a number of other such informal portraits, including Reading in the Garden, 1915 sold at Sotheby's New York, April 2006 (fig.1).

 

We would like to thank Nina Lapidus for providing additional catalogue information.