- 21
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
Estimate
600,000 - 800,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
- Portrait of an African Boy
- inscribed Biskra and dated 1907 l.r.; further bearing 1988 exhibition label on the stretcher
- oil on canvas
- 48 by 36.5cm, 19 by 14 1/2 in.
Provenance
Collection of A.I.Gidoni (1885-1943), St Petersburg
Collection of L.G.Loitsyansky (1900-1991), Leningrad
Sotheby's London, Icons, Russian Pictures and Works of Art, London, 15 December 1994, lot 66
Collection of L.G.Loitsyansky (1900-1991), Leningrad
Sotheby's London, Icons, Russian Pictures and Works of Art, London, 15 December 1994, lot 66
Exhibited
St Petersburg, Salon 1908-1909, January 1909
Leningrad, The State Russian Museum, Kuz'ma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, 1966
Leningrad, Russkoe iskusstvo XVIII - nachala XX veka iz chastnykh sobranii Leningrada, 1988
Leningrad, The State Russian Museum, Kuz'ma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, 1966
Leningrad, Russkoe iskusstvo XVIII - nachala XX veka iz chastnykh sobranii Leningrada, 1988
Literature
Exhibition catalogue Salon 1908-1909, St Petersburg, 1909, no.247 listed as Negritenok (Vozhak za Semikryloi)
A.Rostislavov, 'Zhivopis' Petrova-Vodkina', Apollon, no.3, 1915, p.21 listed as Negritenok (Vozhak za Semikryloi)
A.S.Galushkina, K.S.Petrov-Vodkin, Moscow, 1936, listed as Negritenok (Vozhak za Semikryloi)
Exhibition catalogue Kuz'ma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, Leningrad, 1966, p.18 listed as Negritenok
Exhibition catalogue Russkoe iskusstvo XVIII - nachala XX veka iz chastnykh sobranii Leningrada, Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1988, p.40 listed as Negritenok
A.Rostislavov, 'Zhivopis' Petrova-Vodkina', Apollon, no.3, 1915, p.21 listed as Negritenok (Vozhak za Semikryloi)
A.S.Galushkina, K.S.Petrov-Vodkin, Moscow, 1936, listed as Negritenok (Vozhak za Semikryloi)
Exhibition catalogue Kuz'ma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, Leningrad, 1966, p.18 listed as Negritenok
Exhibition catalogue Russkoe iskusstvo XVIII - nachala XX veka iz chastnykh sobranii Leningrada, Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1988, p.40 listed as Negritenok
Catalogue Note
Petrov-Vodkin spent two months in the early summer of 1907 travelling through Algeria and Tunisia, during which period he made a number of drawings, watercolours and oil studies. ‘I will not tire of thanking Africa for all that this beautiful place, with its desert, its palm trees and its black-skinned people has given me’ wrote Petrov-Vodkin in a letter on his return to Paris (K.Petrov-Vodkin. Pis’ma. Stat’i. Vystupleniya. Dokumenty, Moscow, 1991, p.108). On the evening of May 1st he arrived in Biskra, about 150 miles south east of Algiers, writing 'I send you the African sun from this truly beautiful place... Biskra is an oasis, surrounded by sand... The Arabs are very engaging... How beautifully they talk to each other, it is as though they were singing!'
Soon after his return to St Petersburg the artist showed his African paintings at the Salon 1908-1909 exhibition organised by Sergei Makovsky. In his review, Alexander Benois praised Petrov-Vodkin’s talent and commented on his African cycle: ‘This series has too hastily been compared with Gaugin’s Tahiti; in fact a completely different temperament has been found here, and the resemblance to Gaugin is only superficial and shows perhaps only in the brown skin of the depicted figures and the tropical vegetation’ (A.Benois, ‘Khudozhestvennye pis’ma. Eshche o salone’, Rech’, 11 January 1909).
As Yuri Rusakov notes in his monograph on the artist, his oil sketches from this period are characterised by olive greens, yellows, ochre greys and browns. A number of works from his trip can be found in the collections of the State Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery.
Soon after his return to St Petersburg the artist showed his African paintings at the Salon 1908-1909 exhibition organised by Sergei Makovsky. In his review, Alexander Benois praised Petrov-Vodkin’s talent and commented on his African cycle: ‘This series has too hastily been compared with Gaugin’s Tahiti; in fact a completely different temperament has been found here, and the resemblance to Gaugin is only superficial and shows perhaps only in the brown skin of the depicted figures and the tropical vegetation’ (A.Benois, ‘Khudozhestvennye pis’ma. Eshche o salone’, Rech’, 11 January 1909).
As Yuri Rusakov notes in his monograph on the artist, his oil sketches from this period are characterised by olive greens, yellows, ochre greys and browns. A number of works from his trip can be found in the collections of the State Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery.
We are grateful to Natalia L. Adaskina, Head of the 20th century Prints and Drawings Department at the State Tretyakov Gallery, for providing additional catalogue information.