ALEXANDER EVGENIEVICH YAKOVLEV | LE PÈRE MARTIN (PORT-CROS)

Collection of Mr and Mrs B.A. Javits

Collection of Martin Birnbaum

Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibition catalogue Exposition Alexandre Iacovleff et Vassili Choukhaieff, Paris: Galerie Barbazanges, 1921, no.42 listed

Exhibition catalogue Groupe des artistes russes Mir Iskousstva: Exposition, 1927, no.75 listed

Exibition catalogue Twenty-sixth Annual International Exhibition of Paintings, Pittsburgh: Carnegie Institute, 1927, no.254 listed as The Old Fisherman

Exhibition catalogue Velika izlozhba ruske umetnosti, Belgrade, 1930, p.26, no.247 listed as Ribar iz Porta Kro-a 

M.Birnbaum, Iacovleff and other Аrtists, New York: P.A. Struck, 1946. p.27, pl.2 illustrated; p.xii listed

Paris, Galerie Barbazanges, Exposition Alexandre Iacovleff et Vassili Choukhaieff, 15 November - 1 December 1921, no.42

Paris, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Groupe des artistes russes Mir Iskousstva: Exposition, 7-19 June 1927, no.75 

Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Twenty-sixth Annual International Exhibition of Paintings, 13 October - 4 December 1927, no.254

Belgrade, Velika izlozba ruske umetnosti, 1930, no.247

Alexander Yakovlev’s painting Le Père Martin (Port-Cros) is of art historical interest not only by virtue of its artistic merits, typical for his work post-Imperial Academy (1913), but also owing to the site and story of its creation. Alongside his other works of the early 1920s, which still look back to the Old Masters, Le Père Martin numbers as one of the paintings that launched him, earning him the recognition of the French and émigré critics.

By merging the genres of landscape and portrait in one composition, Yakovlev creates a memorable and colourful image of Père Martin – a middle-aged fisherman, burnt by the rays of the Port-Cros sun. Strong, sturdy, sunk in thought, he is not so much posing for the artist as pausing for breath after the steep climb to the top of the ancient fort Le Moulin. Yakovlev places the figure of the fisherman in the foreground, bringing him as close as possible to the viewer, thus allowing us to get a better look at his face, to analyse his psychological condition and invent a life story for him. The upper part of the composition comprises the background, including a small fragment of the cove and the meticulously painted habitations which appear sharply foreshortened, as is so often the case with Yakovlev. According to Vasily Shukhaev, the sprawling walled-in Mediterranean fort also boasted a drawbridge, morgue and prison, which however lie beyond the confines of this composition.

In this regard, it is worth comparing the background of Le Père Martin with another of Yakovlev’s paintings from 1921 which encompasses a significantly wider view of the island. Unfortunately, Portraits. Port-Cros is known only from a black and white reproduction (fig.3), the whereabouts of both the painting and the accompanying work on paper have been untraceable for almost a century. Depicted almost life-size on the large canvas are the artist and his friends Vasily and Vera Shukhaev and the sculptor Giselle Bunau-Varilla, in her customary pointed hat. It was the latter, the daughter of the builder of the Panama Canal, who rented Le Moulin and invited her Russian friends.

It is worth noting that 1921 was a very significant year. In January, Yakovlev, who had settled in France in the autumn of 1919 and who like most émigrés was struggling to establish himself in Parisian artistic life, was finally joined by his closest friend and comrade-in-arms Shukhaev. Immediately they started to prepare for exhibitions. In June they exhibited their work with Mir Iskusstva, the Parisian group of Russian artists; in the autumn at the group’s second exhibition at the Salon d’automne; and on the 15th November, almost simultaneously, they opened their first joint exhibition at the Barbazanges gallery. It was for this last exhibition that they had been preparing during the four months spent on the Mediterranean island where they created a diverse body of work, including the portraits of Le Père Martin and the artist’s friends. Today, thanks to our acquaintance with the present lot, one can see the proximity in style and subject to the group portrait of Yakovlev’s friends and even imagine the palette of the other, lost work.

We would like to thank Dr Elena Yakovleva, art historian and senior research fellow of the Russian Institute of Art History, for providing this catalogue note