Zinaida Evgenievna Serebriakova

There is a small hole in the sheet below the inner right frame edge. The sheet has slightly discoloured and there is a layer of light surface dirt and spots of foxing in places throughout. Held in a gold painted wooden frame behind glass. Unexamined out of frame.
"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."

The portraits and landscapes Serebriakova painted over the course of two trips to Morocco form a unique and exotic group of works; a nude from this trip however, is exceptionally rare. Both expeditions were funded by a Belgian businessman, the Baron de Brouwer, who had commissioned portraits of his family from her after seeing her work at the 1928 International Exhibition in Brussels. Over the course of that summer he pressed her to visit his extensive plantations in Morocco. Serebriakova agreed, perhaps inspired by the success of Yakovlev's recent Citroën-sponsored expedition to Africa.

Her early letters describe evident delight at Morocco's 'colours, clothes, the biblical mix of races and primitive way of life' but frequently strike a despairing note at the lack of models:
'As soon as you sit to draw the women walk away - Arabs don't wish to be drawn, so they immediately close up their shops or charge up to 10 or 20 francs for tea an hour! He (Brouwer) wants nude paintings of the lovely native women, but it's a fantasy hardly worth dreaming about - even in their veils which cover everything but their eyes nobody will pose for me. There is no question of a nude.' Forced by the strictures of the Koran to work at lightning speed she would often have less than half an hour to complete portraits, yet in Marrakesh, the final destination on the second trip, evidently she at last found a willing model.

Her Moroccan series comprised over two thirds of her 1932 solo exhibition at the Galerie Charpentier which was received by the critics very positively. Konstantin Somov enthused: "I went to Serebriakova's exhibition... What a marvellous artist she is!' (Zinaida Serebriakova, Letters, contemporaries on the artist. Moskva, Izobrazitelnoe Iskusstvo, 1987, p.92). The Paris art critic Camille Mauclair praised her depictions of the Orient for including "none of those brash dolls of the souq that Matisse called 'odalisques''. Indeed, the offered lot exemplifies the contemplative element underlying the series which allowed Serebriakova to avoid Oriental clichés of 'the Other'. Her nudes 'are truly flesh of our flesh' wrote Benois, 'They have that grace, that luxuriousness, that element of proximity and domesticity of Eros, which is more alluring, delicate and at times more artful and dangerous than that which Gaugin captured in Tahiti.'