Angelina Beloff

Paris, Musée du Montparnasse, Elles de Montparnasse, 12 April – 4 August 2002

Original canavs. The paint surface is slightly dirty and there is a dent to the lower right hand corner of the canvas which has resulted in a line of raised craquelure. UV light reveals areas of retouching to the top left hand corner, along the bottom edge and the lower right hand corner as well as further spots elsewhere. UNFRAMED.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Majorcan Landscape is a rare example of Beloff's pre-waroeuvre, executed in the heyday of the European avant-garde culture and the artist's own career. Beloff found an important source of inspiration in the work and aesthetique of Osip Braz's, an artist associated with the World of Art Movement. In 1909 she travelled to Paris and studied under Henri Matisse.
The offered lot was executed during a sketching tour of Spain, which Beloff undertook in the early summer of 1914, accompanied by her husband, Mexican artist Diego Rivera, and by their friends, among them Russian sculptor Jacques Lipschitz and Spanish painter Maria Blanchard. Each painter produced their own, very different, interpretation of the landscape. Whereas Rivera's Cubist interpretation of the subject matter is rendered in spectacular, vibrant colour and sensuous forms, Beloff's treatment of the landscape is decidedly Cezanniste. Beloff's taste for Mediterranean sun and landscape is translated into a strong juxtaposition of intense greens, bright ochres, yellows, and reds. A paradoxical unity of the Russian idiom and the Mediterranean feeling, characteristic of this landscape, would become a hallmark of Beloff's art, and would find its full expression in her Mexican works.