Boris Anisfeld

Sale: Christie's, New York, 15 May 1980, lot 14
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 15 April 2008, lot 65
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Brooklyn, The Brooklyn Museum, The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition, 1918, no. 64 (illustrated in the catalogue)
Worcester, Worcester Art Museum; Boston, Art Club, Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Boris Anisfeld, 1924-5
Philadelphia, Sesqui-Centennial International Exhibition, 1926 (as Rebecca at the Well)

Eckart Lingenauber & Olga Sugrobova-Roth, Boris Anisfeld. Catalogue Raisonné, Düsseldorf, 2011, P-085, catalogued & illustrated

Original canvas. There are no signs of retouching visible under UV light. Apart from a very light horizontal scuff in the shepherd to the right's chest (just visible in the catalogue illustration), overall this work is in very good original condition. Held in a modern gold-painted frame with a black-painted outer liner.
"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."

While becoming famous in Russia and later in the United States for his set designs and costumes for opera and ballet, Anisfeld also produced a large body of paintings and exhibited prolifically. Rebecca was one of a series of Biblical subjects Anisfeld completed during his last years in Russia before emigrating to New York in 1917, and epitomises his colourful, mystical aesthetic. 'Anisfeld's boyhood drawings were mainly after Biblical themes and scenes, and there persists to this day in his art much of the mystic fervour of a book which, though appropriated by the Western world, remains Oriental in its sonorous, colourful imagery' (Christian Brinton, introduction to The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition, Reindhardt Gallery, New York, 1924).

Anisfeld was born in Bessarabia, now in Moldova, studying first at the Odessa School of Art before entering the St Petersburg Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in 1901. Yet even as he received his rigorous academic training at the Academy, he became aware of the innovative artistic developments taking place in the city. The centre of vanguard aesthetics during this period was Mir Iskusstva (World of Art), a society of artists, writers, and musicians which published an eponymous magazine and organised exhibitions from 1899 until 1924. Its distinguished membership included Alexandre Benois, Léon Bakst, and Sergei Diaghilev. Although Anisfeld did not exhibit with Mir Iskusstva until 1906, his contemporaneous works suggest that he was already attracted to its aesthetic concepts, namely 'art for art's sake' and an appreciation of the intuitive processes of vision, emotion, and imagination through which art is created. 

With Diaghilev's support, Anisfeld exhibited in the Russian section of the progressive 1906 Salon d'Automne in Paris alongside Fauve artists Matisse, Gauguin, and Derain, and his responsiveness to European artistic currents brought him fame in the West long before his emigration in 1917. And whereas the Mir Iskusstva artists were best known for their emphasis on line, Anisfeld became renowned as a painterly colourist: 'His colour is brilliant and mellow and musical,' wrote R. Henniker-Heaton, the reviewer of his exhibition at the Boston Arts Club in 1924-25.