Aristarkh Vasilevich Lentulov

The Kogan collection, Moscow
Private collection, Moscow

Moscow, Tsentralny dom khudozhnika, Lentulov Solo Exhibition, 1987

Original canvas which is very fine. The surface is slightly dirty. There is some wear to the edges, creases to the top left corner and some minor creases across the central section. There are signs of craquelure and paint shrinkage in places. UV light reveals an uneven layer of discoloured varnish and no apparent signs of retouching. Held in a simple wooden frame behind glass. Unexamined out of frame.
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This lyrical representation of a woman seated on a beach against the vivid colours of the Crimean coast, was most likely executed circa 1908-9, during one of Aristarkh Lentulov's visits to Alupka or Yalta.

 

The laconic treatment of form here is typical of the artist's early oeuvre. Reminiscent of Kandinksy's first landscapes, Woman by the shore displays a heightened chromatic sensitivity. The roughly-hewn elements of the composition, painted with broad brushstrokes of pure colour, convey the blinding effect of the dazzling sunshine. The effect is heightened by the underlying preparatory white ground which seems to shine through the pigment and gives the composition a great luminescence, which allows the artist to exploit the contrasts between light and dark. In Woman by the shore we can already sense Lentulov's attraction to the fauvist palette in the striking colour combination of deep green with raw pink, which would become characteristic of his mature work.

 

Lentulov returned many times to the theme of bathers, depicted clothed or nude, by the sea, notably lot 36, The Bathers. A direct comparison of these two paintings underscores the rapid and experimental nature of Lentulov's artistic development.

 

It has been suggested that the offered work may have been included in the 1910 exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists as number 216 entitled Sketch (The Bather).