Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev

Private Collection, New York (acquired in Philadelphia circa 1927)
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner in 1988

Gimbel Galleries, Philadelphia, 1927

This painting is in very good condition. The canvas has been lined using glue as an adhesive and although some of the cracking in the green section to the left of the chin is slightly raised, the paint layer is stable. The paint layer is slightly dirty and could be cleaned and lightly varnished. The slight thinness in the red area to the right of the neck is most likely intentional. If the paint layer were to be cleaned, no retouches of note will be required, however the picture could also be hung in its current condition. The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

...You ask me how I came to paint the series of pictures entitled 'Visages Russes.' I have been watching and studying the Russian people for many years, both before and since the war and revolution, and these paintings are the fruits of my observation.

If, during the revolution, I have been studying the people so intently, and if the work I have done at this period manifests its spirit so frankly and strongly, it may be due to the fact that circumstances compelled me to remain in Russia so long without leaving. My conception of the Russian people is both intuitive and artistic. Even as a child I was struck by the animal aspect of the Russian people. It is this same animal that I see in the Russian peasant of today, and I am glad to note that Gorky has come to a similar conclusion, for Gorky's impression proves that I had a clearer vision of reality than those who were idealizing the Russian masses, or did not know the actual Slav. 'Right,' 'left,' 'white,' 'red,' or 'black,' the Russians are animals, and that is why the coloring of my 'Visages Russes' is the typical mujik coloring...

—from a letter from Boris Grigoriev to curator Christian Brinton, printed in the exhibition catalogue for Grigoriev's 1923 exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum.

The present lot is a known portrait from Grigoriev's Rasseia cycle, a precursor to his Faces of Russia or Visages Russes, and it was once part of a double portrait reproduced in his pivotal publication Rasseia of 1922. The pages of this book explained his choice of title, which might easily have been understood by a Russian reader of 1918, when an earlier version of Rasseia was published in Russia, but which was less clear to an international audience. Rasseia was a highly colloquial, even vulgar term for Russia, remote from the official Rossiya that a Socialist Realist painter might use, or the venerable Rus that best reflects turn-of-the-century religious Symbolism.

Grigoriev painted this double portrait in 1920 while living in Berlin, a common destination for Russian émigré artists. His reputation preceded him, and he was accepted as the first foreign member of the artist group known as Berliner Secession. At this time he focused primarily on adding to his Rasseia cycle, which he began years earlier in Russia, and at times he reverted to earlier material for inspiration. For example, the image of this young man resting his head against his hand may be found in other compositions, such as Ulitsa Blondinok (Blondes' Street) from the artist's racy Intimité series, where he appears between the legs of a burlesque dancer. The earliest variation is probably that found in the collection of the State Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod. The treatment in that picture—which was exhibited as early as 1917 in a World of Art exhibition—is less abstracted than that in Russian Man; it is evident that the artist's style matured significantly as he became increasingly interested in Cubism and Expressionism.

From time to time, Grigoriev was known to alter his paintings, sometimes splitting a single composition in two as evidenced by the present lot. There are a few additional modifications, which appear masterfully executed by the artist and date back to the 1920s, including the repainting of the pink plane that fills the lower right portion of the canvas (originally a spotted plane, perhaps a palette of paints; the pink pigment is more typical of the artist's Berlin period, when he experimented with planes of vibrant color, such as the pinks, blues and oranges found in Shepherd of the Hills of that same year). Other variations include the addition of the signature and the alternate approach to the hat that would have appeared at right, visible on the young man's shoulder.

In 1927, Grigoriev exhibited Russian Man in its present state at Gimbel Galleries, a contemporary art gallery in Philadelphia that was prominent in the 1920s and 30s. The exhibition labels with the painting's updated title remain affixed to the stretcher on the reverse. It was there in Philadelphia that Russian Man was acquired by its previous owner, who hung it in his home in New York by the 1930s, and who sold it to a close family friend in 1988.