Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky

Acquired by Boris Bakhmeteff at the Russian Art Exhibition for $300

Possibly Moscow, State Historical Museum, Vystavka kartin, organizovannaya Rossiiskim Obshchestvom Krasnogo Kresta, 1924
New York, Grand Central Palace, Russian Art Exhibition, March-April 1924, no.313

Exhibition catalogue Russian Art Exhibition, New York, Grand Central Palace, 1924, no.313 listed
V.A.Nikolsky, Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky, Moscow: Vsekokhudozhnik, 1936, p.11 listed under works from 1923
Konchalovsky. Khudozhestvennoe nasledie, Moscow, 1964, p.107 listed as zhi 380

Original canvas on what appears to be the original stretcher. There is a small tear along the left edge of the canvas. There are frame abrasions along the edges with some minor associated paint loss. There is a layer of surface dirt. There is paint shrinkage in places, notably to the trees on the right close to the centre of the right edge. There is minor craquelure in the heavily impastoed area below the centre of the composition. Inspection under UV light reveals some minor scattered retouching, most notably to the tree on the right. Held in a gold painted wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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After his 1922 solo exhibition at The State Tretyakov Gallery Konchalovsky began to enjoy significant success overseas, with the Russian Art exhibition in Berlin (1922) and Amsterdam (1923). A major series of international shows followed in 1924 beginning with the Grand Central Palace Exhibition in New York during the spring and finally the June Biennale in Venice. This beautiful moonlit landscape was one of 19 paintings included in the 1924 New York exhibition and can be seen as a companion piece to Moon through Trees (1923), which was exhibited instead in Venice.

The technical confidence of the former Jack of Diamond artists in their post-revolutionary paintings is often remarked upon. As Tugendhold notes, they were much criticised during their long years of apprenticeship for their devotion to French masters, sensuous colouring and the ‘untransformed, primal, just-out-of-tube form’ of their paints, but ‘no one can take this discipline away from them. Jack of Diamonds is one art group… that voluntarily remained within the boundaries of colourful painting’.

‘It is especially noticeable in Konchalovsky’s landscapes where the objects, having lost their properties, become a rich tapestry of colours (from ash-grey to emerald)… The former zestful brushstrokes, underscoring the denseness of forms are all but gone; Konchalovsky’s paint surface is ordered and orchestrated by an artful, sure hand of a seasoned painter (Ya.Tugendhold, From the History of Art: Selected Essays and Notes, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1987, pp.190-191).