Abram Efimovich Arkhipov

Moscow, XII Exhibition of the Society of Art Lovers, December 1892, no.4
St Petersburg, Kiev, XXI Itinerant Exhibition, 14 February 1893 - 10 March 1894, no.1, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue

 

O.Zhivova, Abram Efimovich Arkhipov, Moscow, 1959, p.112 listed
I.Nenarokomova, The Sunny Canvases of Abram Arkhipov, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1982 pp.77-79
V.Andreeva et al, The Society of Itinerant Fine Art Exhibitions, 1869-1899, Letters and Documents, Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1987, p.429, no.2 listed
G.Romanov (Ed.), The Society of Itinerant Fine Art Exhibitions 1871-1923: An Encyclopaedia, St Petersburg: Sankt-Peterburg Orkestr, 2003, p.152, No.2-2, illustrated

The canvas has been laid down on board. There is a layer of light surface dirt and ingrained varnish. There are some losses to the canvas visible along the left hand inner frame edge and a crease along the top right hand corner. There are some fine lines of craquelure in places. UV light reveals some retouching to the top of the soldier's hat and a few minor spots elsewhere. Some pigments in the sky fluouresce under UV. Held in a black painted wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Arkhipov began work on the offered lot in early December of 1892 and submitted it for the competition organised by the Society of Art Lovers, where he was awarded the second prize of 300 rubles. The composition clearly made an impact on his contemporaries: the artist Alexei Kiselev remarked, 'Arkhipov submitted a charming little genre scene.... A young soldier bids farewell to his elderly mother, who has come to visit him at his encampment. The tone is greyish, but very good'. (I.Nenarokomova, The Sunny Canvases of Abram Arkhipov, Moscow, 1982, p.78) It also caught the attention of Sergei Vinogradov, who mentions Arkhipov's 'wonderful' picture in a letter to Yegor Khruslov. (idem)

 

In his early oeuvre Archipov chose as his subjects scenes from everyday peasant life, and tried to elevate them to great art in his canvases (fig.1). In line with many of his contemporaries, he strove to underscore the link between peasants and the land they inhabited. The Farewell is executed in a faded palette, used to convey the bleaching effect of bright sunlight on colour, a style characteristic of Arkhipov's painting in the early 1890s and particularly On the River Oka (1890, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg), which was exhibited at the XVIII Wanderers' exhibition to great acclaim.