Robert Rafaelovich Falk

A.V. Shchekin-Krotovaia
Private Collection, Yerevan (acquired from the above in 1965)

Yerevan, R. Falk, 1965, no. 26

D.V. Sarabianov, Robert Falk, Dresden: 1974, p. 58, illustrated
D.V. Sarabianov and Y.V. Didenko, Paintings of Robert Falk, A Complete Catalogue of Works, Moscow, 2006, no. 773, pp. 551 and 851, illustrated

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 painting has been recently restored and should be hung as is. The canvas has been lined using Beva-371 as an adhesive. The paint layer has been lightly cleaned, varnished and retouched. The restorations have been applied to a few spots on the darker side of the face near the mouth, on the bridge of the nose and in a group of small restorations above the hat in the background. Overall the condition is extremely good.
"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."

"I demand on my rights to be wholly myself," Robert Falk exclaimed, "suffering is always subjective. I want to have the right to my own personal song" (Journal on Russian Art, 1923). While Falk was a founding member of the avant-garde group Jack of Diamonds, his work always adhered to his own unique vision. He was interested in furthering Russian Neo-primitivism, experimenting with Fauvism, Cubism and Cézannism. Although artists such as Larionov and Malevich abandoned the Jack of Diamonds group for its increasing reliance on Western models, Falk persisted, becoming one of the group's leading figures. For Falk, also known as the "Russian Cézanne," the French master was the ultimate realist, an artist of the most fundamental truths, underrated by critics who prized objective realism.

About his own process, Falk once told the writer Ilya Ehrenberg, "I think about many things before I sit down to work, I think about the [subject] I will be painting, about the epoch, landscape, political events, poetry, stories my grandmother told me, the contents of yesterday's newspaper." Ehrenberg concluded that if Impressionists painted the world as they saw it, then Falk painted the world the way he ruminated on it. Indeed, his paintings reveal an active mind at work.

In Self Portrait with Grey Hat, Falk represents himself in the influential mode of Cézanne to underscore the inspiration behind his art. He executed several unique self portraits throughout his career and he considered them among his most important series. He painted this portrait in 1931 while living in Paris.