BORIS DMITRIEVICH GRIGORIEV | BRETON WOMAN

E.Petrova Ed., Boris Grigoriev. From Russian, European, American and Chilean Collections, St Petersburg: Palace Editions, 2012, p.106, no.69 illustrated

Probably Prague, Mánes Union of Fine Arts, 29 May - 20 June 1926, no.32

Santiago de Chile, Cultural Institute of Providencia, Boris Grigoriev, 2012, no.69

The present lot is part of Boris Grigoriev’s celebrated Breton cycle created between 1921 and 1926. Every summer, Grigoriev would invariably escape the hustle and bustle of Paris to work tirelessly in a quiet corner of Brittany. The result of each of these summer trips would be 20 to 30 canvases and a large number of drawings. In the picturesque provincial towns, the artist would look for and find untouched places, ways of life frozen in time, manifestations of ancient traditions and the atmosphere of patriarchal customs.

Grigoriev spent the summer of 1925 on the island of Bréhat, where he worked prolifically. This small, sparsely populated place (even today there are only around 400 residents), inspired him to paint a whole series of landscapes and portraits of locals in traditional dress.

The present work is both a characteristic and outstanding example from the series. Here, the artist is less interested in the details of the costume – the white lace collar and the sophisticated arrangement of the diaphonous headdress – and more in the sitter's tense mood of concentration, as if listening to herself. In her sculptural face, which appears to be carved out of wood, with its chiselled wrinkles like a mediaeval icon; and in her fixed downwards stare, the artist reveals a strong, severe and independent character. The sunburnt, weathered face betrays a person at one with her environment, one which demands an unalterable, unchanging way of life.

The ancient roots of Breton culture only encouraged Grigoriev’s inclination to turn to the primitive characteristics of the early Northern Renaissance, the influence of which is obvious in this cycle. At the same time, his work from these years demonstrates stylistic affinities with realist movements of the 1920s such as the New Objectivity, Metaphysical Realism as well as others.

Rejecting precise individualisation, Grigoriev pursues a course of generalisation and standardisation in his Breton portraits. This is even reflected in the neutral titles of these works, such as Breton Pagpipers, Breton Peasants, Old Breton Woman, Breton Fisherman. The precise geographical association is however important to the artist – his models live in Pont-Aven, the Isle of Batz, Quimper, Paimpol, Concarneau and on the Island of Bréhat (A Girl from Pont-Aven, A Breton Woman from Paimpol) – as over the centuries each place in Brittany has developed its own style of everyday and festive clothing, traditions and architecture. This is how the sitter is presented here – an inhabitant of the picturesque island of Bréhat, a bastion of the wisdom and deep roots of ancient Breton culture, while at the same time recognisable as a unique individual.

This portrait was possibly exhibited at Grigoriev’s solo exhibition in Prague, which took place from 29 March to 20 June 1926 at the Mánes Association of Fine Arts. The exhibition included a few works painted on the island listed simply as Bréhat (numbers 20, 23, 30-34 in the catalogue). This is also suggested by the label on the stretcher, which bears the number 32 (?) and is inscribed Bréhat.

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