Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev

Cyril Grigoriev, the artist's son
Acquired directly from the above by the parents of the present owner

Possibly Paris, Salon d'Automne, 1931
Possibly Paris, Galérie La Renaissance, Exposition d'Art Russe, 2-15 June 1932
Possibly New York, Marie Sterner Gallery, Paintings and Watercolours by Boris Grigoriev, 17-29 April 1933, no.6
Possibly New York, Academy of Applied Arts, Boris Grigoriev. 1920-1935, 1935, no.13
Cagnes-sur-Mer, Château-Musée de Cagnes-sur-Mer, Hommage à Boris Grigorieff 1887-1939, 1978-1979, no.15

Exhibition catalogue Hommage à Boris Grigorieff 1887-1939, Cagnes-sur-Mer: Château-Musée de Cagnes-sur-Mer, 1978, listed and illustrated b/w
T.Galeeva, Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev, St Petersburg: Zolotoy Vek, 2007 p.177 illustrated
Exhibition catalogue Boris Grigoriev, St Petersburg: Palace Editions, 2011, p.284 the present work is visible on a b/w photograph

Structural Condition The canvas is unlined and is securely attached to a fixed wooden stretcher. This is providing a stable structural support. There are slightly raised stretcher-bar lines mainly corresponding to the central, upper and lower stretcher-bars. There are also fine lines of slightly raised craquelure throughout the composition but these appear stable at present. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows scattered retouchings, the most significant of which are an area above the head of the sitter, an area within his left arm and an area within his lower abdomen, other scattered retouchings within the flesh tones, a thin intermittent horizontal line within the background above his right shoulder, retouchings above the lower edge and scattered retouchings within the background. Other small scattered retouchings are also visible. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition.
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From the mid-1910s onwards portraiture was one of the main genres in Boris Grigoriev’s work. His wife Elizaveta (1883-1968) and their only son Cyril (1915-2001) were among his favourite sitters and he painted both at various periods of their lives, Cyril from infancy. The present portrait is one of the artist’s most important works from the 1930s. It was painted during a highly productive summer of 1931 in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, where Grigoriev spent his time painting the landscapes, still lifes and his the garden of his secluded villa, Borisella.

Portrait of the Artist’s Son can be considered to form a triptych together with two other portraits dating from the early 1930s, the small-scale Portrait of Cyril Grigoriev (c.1930, sold at Sotheby’s London in June 2010, fig.2) and the larger portrait, My Son (c.1932, whereabouts unknown). The latter in particular bears similarities to the present lot; Cyril is depicted as a Classical hero, full-length and shirtless; his well-defined torso muscles are almost identical in both portraits. The same model features in each, but most striking is the shared sense of Classical clarity, precision of form, simple composition and similar palette.

The present portrait of Cyril has traditionally been dated to 1934, probably by the sitter himself. A letter from the artist in 1931 however, suggests that it was in fact begun three years earlier. ‘I have started a life-size portrait of my son, bare-chested’ wrote Grigoriev to Baroness Maria Wrangel on 27^th August 1931. ‘He is beautiful like a God, and I am creating something Classical in the manner of Raphael, only in a deeper, more intelligent and significant way, naturally. I am bringing all my powers to this work, all my experiences and disappointments, in the hope that perhaps I will then manage to combine my knowledge with my new artistic longings’ (see R.Antipova, ‘Perepiska Borisa Grigor'eva s baronessoi Marie Vrangel', Novyi zhurnal, no.261, December 2010). The comparison with Raphael is typical for Grigoriev, who by then had achieved fame in both Europe and America, and was striving for classical simplicity in his artistic language.

In 1931 Grigoriev was working on a portrait of the famous Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff alongside the present portrait of Cyril. Both were exhibited at the Paris Salon d'Automne in November of that year. Grigoriev let on Rachmaninoff that he was anxious about completing them: ‘I'm not sure whether I’ll be able to come to Paris this autumn to exhibit at the Salon d'Automne. Everything I need for the exhibition including all my frames are at my studio at 100 Rue de la Tour, which I’m struggling to hold on to. I was planning to exhibit two portraits this year; yours and the one of my son. All summer I have been at my easel working on these two. I’ve poured my heart and soul into them. The results are very different though – the calm, classical form and amber palette of the tanned young man versus the wild and creative atmosphere of musical thunder in yours. But I’ve not finished either and now worry whether they will be completed’ (S.V.Rakhmanninov. Literaturnoe nasledstvo, v.2, Moscow, 1980, p.529).

While the composition of Cyril’s portrait is well defined and has a sculptural feel to it, there is freedom and expressiveness to its surface and an unfinished quality to the background. The bright, ochre tones of his fine body in many ways recall a Byzantine icon, while the clear outlines of his handsome profile brings out the symmetry of his youthful body.

We would like to thank Tamara Galeeva for providing this catalogue note.