Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin

Lyubov Rakhat, Odessa

Her daughter, Augustina Vilen, Stockholm, from 1939

Thence by descent to the previous owner



Original canvas. The paint surface is slightly dirty. There are areas of light abrasion to paint surface in the left hand inner frame edge and along the bottom of the work. There are further rubbings to the lower right corner. UV light reveals no apparent retouching, however a layer of uneven opaque varnish prevents a more concrete analysis. Held in a modern wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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The offered portrait of two ladies seated in a dacha interior dressed in traditional Russian attire is typical of the freely-sketched, spontaneous compositions which Konstantin Korovin so enjoyed painting in the 1910s. Executed in the dynamic and expressive brushstrokes which characterise the canvases of this period, these etude-like portraits showcase the artist's solution to the 'problem of depicting the human figure in a living, ever-changing light-air environment'. (V.Kruglov , 'Konstantin Korovin: In Search of Joy and Light' in Konstantin Korovin exhibition catalogue, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg: Palace Editions, 2011, p.6).
The early 1900s had seen Korovin rise to fame as designer for the Moscow Arts Theatre and the influence of his work for the stage diffuses into his easel painting through a heightened sense of drama in even the most private of his portraits. The characteristic upwards perspective, enhanced through the strong diagonals in the floor and walls, endows his subject with a statuesque, almost Neo-Classical grandeur which combine with the bright hues of the sitter's richly-pattered costumes and the warm ochres of the interior to create a highly decorative effect.

Before leaving Russia definitively for Germany in 1922, Korovin spent the 'lean years' of 1919-1921 at an artist's colony near Tver. Here, his creative output was dominated by Paris views painted from memory and intimate, lyrical portraits. Irina Geraschenko has suggested that the present lot is one of a number of 'Russian interiors' painted in the early years of his emigration.