Lot 50
  • 50

Nicolas Alexandrovitch Tarkhoff

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Description

  • Nicolas Tarkhoff
  • The Artist's Two Children
  • signed N. Tarkhoff (lower left)
  • oil on canvas
  • 23 5/8 by 28 3/4 in.
  • 60 by 73 cm

Literature

Robert Vrinat, ``Nicolas Tarkhoff: 1871-1930,''  in Les Cahiers d'Art-Documents, Encyclopédie générale des beaux-arts au XIX et XX siècles; peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs, architectes, décorateurs, etc., no. 221, 1965, illustrated p. 9 as Les deux Garçons et le Chat

Catalogue Note

Tarkhoff moved from Moscow to the artistic center of Paris in 1899.  By 1906, noted art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard mounted an extensive solo exhibition of over 70 of Tarkhoff's paintings.   From 1904 until 1911 he contributed paintings to the Paris Salon d'Automne.  In the 1907 Salon d’Automne exhibition, Tarkhoff’s vivid, exuberant work led one reviewer to regard him as ``part of the younger Bohemian crowd [who] outrage even the Byzantines and our North American Indians with their brilliant color’’ (as quoted in Eleanor Green, ``Nicolas Tarkhoff,’’ Berry-Hill Galleries, 1989-1990, p. 7). 

Tarkhoff’s early friendship with Russian artist Konstantin Korovin (see lots 66-74) introduced him to the vibrant colors and rapid brushwork of impressionist painting.  Additionally, works by Monet, Van Gogh and the Fauves greatly influenced his style and choice of motifs.  After 1905, Tarkhoff concentrated on the theme of motherhood, the present composition of Tarkhoff's children serves as an exceptional example.  Despite living abroad, Tarkhoff continued to actively exhibit in Russia.  Upon Alexandre Benois' recommendation, The State Tretyakov Gallery acquired his 1904 painting Goats in the Sun (see Vladimir Kruglov's article, ``Nicolas Tarkhoff and Russian Artistic Culture,'' in Nicolas Tarkhoff: Impressions of a  Russian Painter in Paris, State Russian Museum, 1999, pp. 93-99).