Boris Israilovich Anisfeld

Brooklyn, The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition, 1918, No.51
Shepherd Gallery, New York
Anisfeld family
Acquired directly from above by the present owner in 1984.

New York, The Brooklyn Museum. The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition (touring), 1918-1920, Cat. No.51
Boston, Boston Art Club and Twentieth Century Club,  Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Boris Anisfeld, 10 December 1924 to 3 January 1925, Cat.No.14
New York, Sheperd Gallery, Boris Anisfeld in St. Petersburg, 1901-1917, 1984, Cat. No.38
Toronto, Art Gallery of Ontario, Boris Anisfeld - Fantast-Mystic: Twelve Russian Paintings from the Collection of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum, 1989, Cat. No. 8

C.Brinton, The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition, New York, 1918, Cat. No.51

In Christmas Anisfeld depicts one of his favourite models his daughter Morella, also known as Marushka. His sketchbooks from 1910 to 1916 are filled with drawings of her and also some by her. Morella is holding a doll and sitting beside a table, on which there are another doll, plates of food and an orange. The remaining space is filled with a Christmas tree decorated with baubles and ornaments, with apples beneath the tree on the lower right. The sitter has said about the picture: "Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, I don't know which, but I hated that doll. It was too well dressed in the fashion, in a very chic costume, and that's the last thing I wanted. My father gave me a whole set of peasant dolls too, and I didn't like them. I wanted a baby-doll."

Whereas in the summer the artist concentrated on landscape painting, in winter he tended to do figural compositions, portraits and still life and Christmas combines all three of these genres. Anisfeld once said that in his still lifes "I paint what expresses my mood or thought, regardless of what is actually before me. I always try to express the essential truthfully, but the colour is my own conception of the subject".

Stylistically the most likely influence for Christmas is the famous Lilac by Mikhail Vrubel which hangs today in the Tretyakov Gallery. Executed in 1900 the painting depicts a girl on the left, set against a backdrop of lilac fragmented into a vividly coloured pattern. Anisfeld handles the tree and its decorations in a similar manner, turning them into a fantastic pattern of colours and shapes which provide a festive background for the portrait of his beloved daughter Marushka.