- 17
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
Estimate
600,000 - 800,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
- Bathing Boys
- signed by the artist with initials in Cyrillic, inscribed S-kand and dated 1921 28 / IX l.r.; further dated 1921, titled and inscribed Samarkand in Cyrillic on the reverse, likely by the artist's wife
- oil on canvas
- 41.5 by 48.5cm, 16 1/4 by 19in.
Literature
V.Kostin, K.S.Petrov-Vodkin, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1966, p.97 illustrated; p.155 listed with dimensions under works from 1921
Condition
Structural Condition
The canvas is unlined and is securely attached to a fixed wooden stretcher. The turnover edges have been strengthened with a strip-lining. The canvas is inscribed on the reverse and there are traces of paint on the reverse of the canvas.
Paint Surface
The paint surface appears to have the artist's original unvarnished appearance. There are some very fine vertical lines of craquelure in the upper right of the composition. These appear stable at present. There is a small area of paint loss just above the centre of the lower edge, a few tiny losses within the pale pigments in the lower right of the composition, a further tiny loss within the green pigments in the centre of the composition and one tiny loss just above the right side of the blue form in the lower part of the composition. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows some scattered carefully applied retouchings, the most significant of which are small scattered retouchings in the upper right, scattered retouchings below and to the right of the rightmost figure, an area in the lower left corner, several retouchings within the red pigments above the lower edge and scattered retouchings in the upper left of the composition.
Summary
The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition and would benefit from the infilling and retouching of any paint losses.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
Catalogue Note
In the summer of 1921 Petrov-Vodkin travelled to Uzbekistan with his talented pupil, Alexander Samokhvalov. The resulting ‘Samarkand series’ is regarded by many as the acme of his artistic career, and consists of 20 paintings according to Kostin’s listing, ‘of which fifteen landscapes, a couple of portraits, sketches and genre scenes and a few drawings and watercolours’ (V.Kostin, K.S.Petrov-Vodkin, 1966, p.92). Several are now in museum collections and Bathing Boys is the first oil from this limited series ever to be offered at auction.
The series is distinguished by a combination of intense ochre and blues. ‘What mighty sights, what air, what sky!’ Petrov-Vodkin writes to his wife in July 1921. ‘I have never seen such sky: it is as if someone tipped a blue cup over my head!’ (cited in K.S.Petrov-Vodkin, Pis’ma. Stat’yi. Vystupleniya. Dokumenty, p.219). Over the six months of his trip he worked feverishly, often 10 hours a day, and by August had ‘eleven canvases, some finished, others still in progress… but the days run by too quickly’ (idem.p.219). Kostin lists two other works in the Samarkand series titled Bathing Boys, both of which are pencil sketches (34.7 by 22.2cm and 32 by 22cm).
In his journal Samarkandia (1923), Petrov-Vodkin recalls that his mornings would begin with an invigorating swim, often in the healing waters of ‘the Silver stream’. Water was also an important source of artistic inspiration for him. ‘Whenever I arrive in a new place, I am never at ease until I find a comfortable place where I can relax, sit, read and think. After a long walk down dusty tracks, I found just such a place on the river bank’ (idem., p.218). Bathing is a major theme in Petrov-Vodkin’s work more generally and the central motif of one of his most famous paintings, Warrior Tormented by Thirst (1915, fig.4), in which we find the bathers in angular poses not dissimilar to the present lot.
The lack of obvious ethnographic references in the present lot is noteworthy. In a number of works from the series for example, Shakh-Zinda, Samarkand (fig.5, The State Russian Museum), the local Uzbek garb and physiognomies are pronounced. The figures in Bathing Boys are more abstracted however and closer stylistically to the oil study, Glimpse of Samarkand (fig.7). In terms of execution and canvas weave, the present lot bears close comparison with Samarkand (fig.6), which shares the singularly granular texture and almost X-ray sense of strong diagonals and planes underlying the light imprint of the figures on the surface paint layer.
The series is distinguished by a combination of intense ochre and blues. ‘What mighty sights, what air, what sky!’ Petrov-Vodkin writes to his wife in July 1921. ‘I have never seen such sky: it is as if someone tipped a blue cup over my head!’ (cited in K.S.Petrov-Vodkin, Pis’ma. Stat’yi. Vystupleniya. Dokumenty, p.219). Over the six months of his trip he worked feverishly, often 10 hours a day, and by August had ‘eleven canvases, some finished, others still in progress… but the days run by too quickly’ (idem.p.219). Kostin lists two other works in the Samarkand series titled Bathing Boys, both of which are pencil sketches (34.7 by 22.2cm and 32 by 22cm).
In his journal Samarkandia (1923), Petrov-Vodkin recalls that his mornings would begin with an invigorating swim, often in the healing waters of ‘the Silver stream’. Water was also an important source of artistic inspiration for him. ‘Whenever I arrive in a new place, I am never at ease until I find a comfortable place where I can relax, sit, read and think. After a long walk down dusty tracks, I found just such a place on the river bank’ (idem., p.218). Bathing is a major theme in Petrov-Vodkin’s work more generally and the central motif of one of his most famous paintings, Warrior Tormented by Thirst (1915, fig.4), in which we find the bathers in angular poses not dissimilar to the present lot.
The lack of obvious ethnographic references in the present lot is noteworthy. In a number of works from the series for example, Shakh-Zinda, Samarkand (fig.5, The State Russian Museum), the local Uzbek garb and physiognomies are pronounced. The figures in Bathing Boys are more abstracted however and closer stylistically to the oil study, Glimpse of Samarkand (fig.7). In terms of execution and canvas weave, the present lot bears close comparison with Samarkand (fig.6), which shares the singularly granular texture and almost X-ray sense of strong diagonals and planes underlying the light imprint of the figures on the surface paint layer.