IVAN PAVLOVICH POKHITONOV | LILACS ON THE MANTELPIECE, RUE DU TRÔNE

Collection of Eugénie von Wulfert and Boris Wulfert Pokhitonov, Belgium

Boris Wulfert Pokhitonov, France

Collection of Nikolaus von Wulfert, Germany

Thence by descent

Christie's London, Important Russian Pictures, 28 November 2007, lot 293

O.Bertrand, Ivan Pokhitonov (1850-1932), Catalogue Raisonné, Volume 1, Luxembourg: Belart International Editions, 2015, p.227, no.I5 illustrated

This rare interior scene is one of five such elegant depictions of Pokhitonov’s apartment in rue du Trône, Brussels, where he lived from 1922 until his death at the end of 1923. At this time the artist’s health was deteriorating and he changed to cardboard supports rather than his preferred wooden panels due to the greatly simplified preparation process.

As a master of the composition in miniature Pokhitonov carefully selected the angle and arranged the composition of his paintings. Here, it is as if we see the room through the artist’s own eyes; instead of giving the viewer an overall view of the interior the composition is abruptly brought right up close. Even though the vase with lilacs is off-centre the viewer’s eye is drawn to it - the result of the artist’s technical brilliance and attention to even the smallest of details.

Aged 73, Pokhitonov was still a formidable draughtsman and colourist but his technique had evolved and he no longer sought to paint his scenes with photographic accuracy but to infuse them with impressionistic sensibility creating a strikingly modern effect.