Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev

Mrs. Florence B. Keep, Washington D.C.
Acquired as a gift from the above in 1948

New York, The New Gallery, Paintings and Drawings by Boris Grigoriev, Dec-Jan 1924-25, no. 1
Possibly, Paris, L'Hotel Jean Charpentier, Boris Grigorieff, 1925

The New Gallery, Paintings and Drawings by Boris Grigoriev, New York, 1924, illustrated
R.N. Antipova, "Le Bretagne dans l'oeuvre de Boris Grigorieff," Peintres Russes en Bretagne, 2006, p. 63
Tamara Galeeva, Grigoriev, St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 208

This painting is in very fresh and good condition. The reverse of the original canvas has been treated with Beva-371 and crepeline, and the tacking edges have been reinforced to facilitate proper stretching. The paint layer is stable and since the canvas is not lined, it is very well-textured. The paint layer has also been cleaned and lightly varnished. The painting has most likely only been cleaned once recently and no abrasion or deterioration of the paint layer has occurred. This is a very bright and rich paint layer. Under ultraviolet light, there are isolated restorations visible, particularly in the blue coat of the pipe player where a few small chips of paint have been lost in this color, and to a lesser degree, in his trousers. These restorations have been fairly recently applied and are suitable. The original paint layer reads quite strongly under ultraviolet light in some areas, and one should be aware of this so as not to draw the wrong conclusions about the whereabouts of any retouches. There are other small retouches beneath the seat of the pipe of the musician on the right and some very small isolated spots elsewhere, for instance in the brim of the hat of the figure on the right and in other areas in this same hat. Despite these isolated retouches and a few others, this is not a picture with any structural problems or any proliferation of restoration. Overall the condition is very good. 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."

Binious (Pipe Players) is a large-scale masterpiece and a pre-eminent example of Grigoriev's Visages du Monde (Faces of the World) cycle. This very same image of musicians was later reiterated in one of the artist's best known works—Visages du Monde, a monumental compilation of portraits from 1920-1931, including those from Grigoriev's Rasseia, Faces of Russia and Brittany cycles. Like Faces of Russia of 1921, Visages du Monde is a profound psychological study of the faces of so-called "primitive" country people, uprooted and disoriented by the industrialized world yet fiercely resolute to survive. Grigoriev's Visages du Monde series represents not only the soulful Russian portraits of his early career, but also the countless faces he encountered elsewhere, particularly in Brittany, where he found the Breton peasants and their traditions to be intimately connected to the Russian spirit.

The 1920s were extremely productive years for Grigoriev, for he traveled frequently and created a prolific canon of paintings. Above all, the decade marked his introduction to the world outside of Russia; he spent extensive time in Germany, France, the United States, and even Chile, and his fame preceded him everywhere he went. He began to exhibit widely, and his works were promoted by the likes of Christian Brinton, legendary curator and supporter of Russian émigré artists. Grigoriev was soon able to support himself by selling his paintings to wealthy collectors in Western Europe and America, and in 1927 he moved to Cagnes-sur-Mer where he built a house he called Borisella, a combination of his name and that of his wife. Though he continued to travel until his death in 1939, he painted the majority of his later canvases, including the epic Visages du Monde, at home at Borisella.

The fact that Grigoriev became so popular during his lifetime comes as no surprise, for his painterly style and psychological awareness were unequaled. At once both conservative and revolutionary, his canvases reflected both German Expressionist and French post-Impressionist influences, while his reliance on contour line and his rejection of plasticity have been linked to icon and Renaissance painting. Grigoriev expressed interest in numerous seemingly opposite movements, from Critical Realism to Symbolism and Impressionism to Cubo-Futurism, and he juxtaposed motifs from each to create a heightened sense of compositional and psychological tension. Meanwhile he utilized a limited yet bold palette for all things within his compositions—from the pale of a figure's face to that of his bag and the sky and certain homes behind him, or from the red of a figure's cheek to that of his pants, a hat, other homes and even a tree—and thus he produced a sense of harmony out of discord, in which all elements of his composition were interconnected, and the peasant figures were inherently linked to the land in which they lived.

Binious (Pipe Players) was executed in the summer of 1924 in Pont-Aven, Brittany, where Grigoriev lived with his family and painted at the villa Ker-Anna. It was over the span of that summer that he painted his Brittany cycle, a series of paintings and works on paper that depicted the landscape and faces he encountered there (including fishermen, their wives, children and the elderly). He felt this part of France to be a land "of druids, soothsayers, judges and medicinists, who have studied the movement of the planets and mastered the art of calligraphy" (Poslednie Novosti, Paris, no. 3436).  Like Gauguin before him, Grigoriev was spellbound by the severe landscape, its history and its pious people, who somehow seemed to have passed through the ages unchanged. At the time it was a widely accepted notion that the Breton peasants had escaped the evils of modernity, existing rather as a sacred vessel of primitive traditions. "Binious," as noted by scholar Tamara Galeeva, citing the words of critic L. Lvov, "reflects—purely and without particular ethnographic excess—the soul of Brittany," having its own tone and native character. Grigoriev thereby distinguishes this painting from his earlier Russian period, yet Rasseia was not far from his mind. He undoubtedly found similarities between the Breton and Russian peasants, and his Binious (Pipe Players) confirms it, for he painted the musicians as he would Russians, with the same rugged faces and expressive eyes, capturing the essence of their common spirit.

The present lot must be counted among the most significant artistic achievements of Boris Grigoriev's career. The canvas is one of his largest, and on it he depicts a pair of peasant musicians performing folk songs on the streets of the seaside village of Pont-Aven (as identified by his large-scale depiction of the town, painted from this same perspective). The composition of imposing figures in the foreground—hovering above platforms decorated with Rasseia motifs—appears monumental against the patchwork of the bold and sweeping landscape, reflecting the complex tone and rhythm of the music the musicians play. Grigoriev was intensely interested in folk music, which was considered fundamental to peasant identity yet often overlooked in the visual arts. Though he was best known for his allusions to literature and poetry, Grigoriev made numerous references to folk music and composition in his oeuvre. Just as one might see the unmasked and haunting faces of Gogol or Dostoevsky in his portrait paintings, one might also see the mournful shape and texture of peasant song.

The painting's original title, Binious, comes from binioù, a Breton word for the traditional bagpipe native to the region. The musician at left plays the binioù kozh (or "old" binioù), which is one octave and extremely high pitched; its lowest note is equal to the highest note on the great Highland bagpipe of Scotland. Meanwhile his partner at right plays the bombarde, a Breton folk instrument that crosses the pipe of a binioù with an oboe. Binioù and bombarde players would perform duets for Breton folk dancing. Interestingly, the bombarde requires much breath and is exceedingly difficult to play, which possibly accounts for the beleaguered expression on the face of the man at right. In traditional Breton folk song, it was frequently necessary for the two pipe players to take turns playing solos, permitting one another time to rest.

When Grigoriev left Brittany at the end of the summer, he chose to take his newly finished Brittany cycle to America for his one-man exhibition at The New Gallery in New York. In place of an introduction to the catalogue, the gallery printed the following letter, in which Grigoriev praises Binious (Pipe Players) as the "most important canvas" from the series:

Pont-Aven Finistère
September 8, 1924

My dear Christian:

I have been here all summer with my wife and boy—here where lived and painted Gauguin and van Gogh, who are still remembered by the older inhabitants. Gauguin's modest mansarde I often pass, and reverently salute. Working incessantly in this remote spot, I have seen nothing of Paris, and Russia is far from my thoughts. My countrymen in fact distress and digust me with their conflicting passions and opinions, their pitiful instability of purpose. However, despite everything, I suppose one must always remain a Russian!

My summer's work I think you will like, especially my Binious, the most important canvas I have produced since your favourite Rassaya. I have also done several character portraits of local peasant types, and numerous landscapes in the Pont-Aven district—glimpses of river, village, and smooth green hill. Inside tiny Breton cottage, and outside in the sun and breeze I have worked ! and by the time I leave I shall have in all about thirty new paintings and sketches.

These I am eager to show you, and am eager to see upon the walls of the New Gallery, for I have decided again to try my fate in your country. America has meant for me a kind of renaissance of the spirit, and I shall be gloriously happy to be once more in dear, dynamic New York!

Your devoted friend,

BORIS G.

Binious (Pipe Players) is illustrated on the following page and is listed as the first painting in the exhibition catalogue (Paintings & Drawings by Boris Grigoriev, The New Gallery, December 6, 1924 - January 2, 1925). Binious (Pipe Players) is also reproduced on the invitation to an exhibition at L'Hotel Jean Charpentier in Paris in 1925, so presumably the painting traveled back to Europe once more before it was purchased by Mrs. Florence Boardman Keep.