Yuri Pavlovich Annenkov

The collection of the artist, Paris
Sotheby's London, Russian Pictures, 22 May 2002, lot 104

Vozroszhdenie, La Renaissance, Paris, issue no.162, September 1962, illustrated on cover
Yu.Annenkov, Dnevnik miokh vstrech, New York, 1966, p.113, illustrated
J.Rude, Anna Akhmatova, Paris, 1968, p.19

Support Annenkov has used a sheet of handmade paper to support this gouache. This sheet shows a deckled edge on all sides. The condition of the sheet is good and strong and there is a small, secured, vertical tear at the top edge, 1.5cm in length, and another small, secured tear, .50cm in length, on the right-hand side. The lower left corner has a small paper loss and there are a few light fox marks, particularly visible on the left in the background. Artist pinholes show at the corners. The verso shows some foxing and slight time staining and also the remains of self-adhesive tapes and other brown paper tapes, mainly at the top. Medium The medium is in a good condition with no apparent fading.
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As Annenkov records in Dnevnikh moikh vstrech (1966), he made two portraits of Akhmatova in 1921, one in pen and ink, the other in gouache. ‘Akhmatova posed for me with exemplary patience, her left hand placed across her breast. During our session, no doubt we talked about inconsequential things’. As Annenkov elaborates, the ink portrait was reproduced in Portrety (Petropolis, 1922) and was acquired by the founder of the publishing house, Mr Blokh. The following year it was included in Akhmatova’s volume of poetry, Anno Domini, and subsequently reproduced more widely all over the world. The present gouache version was first published in France in 1962 (fig.1) and is particularly important because Annenkov treasured it among his personal possessions, giving it pride of place on the wall of his study in Paris where it hung for over forty years (see Yu. Annenkov, Dnevnikh moikh vstrech, 1966, p.123).

Evgeny Zamyatin famously described the extraordinary power of the pen and ink version: ‘This portrait of Akhmatova, or rather, this portrait of Akhmatova’s eyebrows - like clouds, they cast shadows across her face, both heavy and light. What losses they speak of. They are like the key on a sheet of music: once established, you can hear what the eyes are telling you, understand the mourning of her hair, the line of black prayer beads across her crown’ (ibid.).  His comments apply equally, if not more so, to the present, more finished work.

Annenkov first properly met Akhmatova at The Stray Dog in St Petersburg in late 1913 or early 1914. In his memoirs he recalls the deep impression she left on him – her hushed, musical voice, along with her natural pose, graceful gestures, striking hairstyle, heavy fringe and unstudied elegance.  ‘No question, sadness was the most characteristic expression on Akhmatova’s face, even when she smiled. It was this enchanting sadness that made her face so beautiful. Every time I saw her, heard her reading or spoke with her, I couldn’t tear my eyes from her face – her eyes, her lips, the entire structure of her features was a symbol of her poetry’ (ibid.).

In the present portrait the sitter is clearly overcome by sorrow. Akhmatova’s fifth book of poetry, Podorozhnik, published in 1921 focuses on the privations of contemporary life, and was a book Annenkov confessed to reading over and over again. It was a period of tremendous social turmoil and personal grief for Akhmatova, as the young Soviet state began to tighten its grip and those unwilling or unable to cooperate began either to emigrate or face the consequences.  This was the year her first husband Nikolai Gumilev (1886-1921) was arrested by the Cheka and executed. But unlike so many of her contemporaries, Akhmatova never left the Soviet Union and for most of her life remained in Leningrad, a city with which she identified passionately and whose citizens considered her a supreme example of physical and moral courage. This iconic portrait of the poet and of the age can be considered among the most evocative Annenkov ever produced.