- 64
Boris Israilovich Anisfeld
bidding is closed
Description
- Boris Izrailevich Anisfeld
- Prayer
- signed in Cyrillic and dated 1906 (lower left); also inscribed Prayer (on the reverse)
- oil on canvas
- 49 3/4 by 56 in.
- 126.4 by 142.2 cm
Provenance
Shepherd Gallery, New York (acquired directly from the family of the artist)
Private collection
Private collection
Exhibited
Possibly, Vienna, Secession, 1908, no. 175 (titled Am Meere)
Malmö, Sweden, 1914
New York, Shepherd Gallery, Boris Anisfeld in St. Petersburg, 1984, no. 3, plate II, illustrated
Toronto, Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Boris Anisfeld, "Fantast-Mystic'': Twelve Russian Paintings from the Collection of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum, 1989, no. 3 (titled Prayer 1906)
Literature
Shepherd Gallery, Boris Anisfeld in St. Petersburg: 1901-1917, New York, 1984, no. 3, plate 2, illustrated
Vivien Raynor, ``Art,'' New York Times, November 2, 1984
Roger J. Mesley, Boris Anisfeld, "Fantast-Mystic'': Twelve Russian Paintings from the Collection of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum, no. 3, pp. 28-31 (illustrated)
Vivien Raynor, ``Art,'' New York Times, November 2, 1984
Roger J. Mesley, Boris Anisfeld, "Fantast-Mystic'': Twelve Russian Paintings from the Collection of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum, no. 3, pp. 28-31 (illustrated)
Catalogue Note
Prayer, 1906, is the earliest work from Anisfeld’s Russian period to appear at auction. Prayer is a contemplative and spiritual masterpiece. This Symbolist work may have been shown at the Vienna Secession in 1908.
In Prayer, Anisfeld paints an arcadian scene which reveals harmony between man and nature. Three children huddle on the shore before a glistening seascape, their heads bowed in apparent contemplation. In the foreground, a vibrant still life of fruit juts forth monumentally, suggesting nature’s abundance or mystical offerings. Anisfeld uses large patches of flat color to construct the pictorial space and create a complex decorative arrangement in Prayer, similar to the way in which he created The Blue Statue (see lot 53 ). As Roger J. Mesley described it , ``at the time of Prayer…the nude figure reverently facing water was a very common theme in northern Symbolist art…When Symbolists used this motif, its significance could vary from a longing for transcendent escape from earth-bondage to revealing the divinity immanent in Nature’’ (Roger J. Mesley, Boris Anisfeld, "Fantast-Mystic, p. 30). Indeed, Danish artist P.S. Kroyer's Boys Bathing, Summer Evening, Skagen, 1899, is a good example of the theme (fig.1).
Anisfeld was also influenced by Gauguin, Sérusier and Bonnard, artists closely associated with the Nabis. These artists influenced Anisfeld’s choice of colors, form and his use of flattening perspective (fig. 2 and 3).
The Symbolist movement swept across Europe from the mid-1880s to the turn-of-the-century and its tenets were influential and far-reaching. French Symbolism and its masters such as Puvis de Chavannes, profoundly influenced many Russian artists at the turn-of the-century including Anisfeld. As Puvis de Chavannes explained symbolist philosophy, ``a work of art emanates from a confused emotion in which it is contained like an animal in its egg. I meditate on the thought buried in this emotion until it appears lucidly and as distinctly as possible before my eyes. Then I search for an image that translates it with exactitude…This is symbolism if you like.’’ (Jules Laforgue, Symbolist Art Theories, p. 40). Puvis de Chavannes’ subtle palette of soft tones also influenced Petrov-Vodkin’s Symbolist compositions. Petrov-Vodkin painted his contemplative beach scene, Shore two years after Anisfeld’s Prayer (fig. 4).
In Prayer, Anisfeld paints an arcadian scene which reveals harmony between man and nature. Three children huddle on the shore before a glistening seascape, their heads bowed in apparent contemplation. In the foreground, a vibrant still life of fruit juts forth monumentally, suggesting nature’s abundance or mystical offerings. Anisfeld uses large patches of flat color to construct the pictorial space and create a complex decorative arrangement in Prayer, similar to the way in which he created The Blue Statue (see lot 53 ). As Roger J. Mesley described it , ``at the time of Prayer…the nude figure reverently facing water was a very common theme in northern Symbolist art…When Symbolists used this motif, its significance could vary from a longing for transcendent escape from earth-bondage to revealing the divinity immanent in Nature’’ (Roger J. Mesley, Boris Anisfeld, "Fantast-Mystic, p. 30). Indeed, Danish artist P.S. Kroyer's Boys Bathing, Summer Evening, Skagen, 1899, is a good example of the theme (fig.1).
Anisfeld was also influenced by Gauguin, Sérusier and Bonnard, artists closely associated with the Nabis. These artists influenced Anisfeld’s choice of colors, form and his use of flattening perspective (fig. 2 and 3).
The Symbolist movement swept across Europe from the mid-1880s to the turn-of-the-century and its tenets were influential and far-reaching. French Symbolism and its masters such as Puvis de Chavannes, profoundly influenced many Russian artists at the turn-of the-century including Anisfeld. As Puvis de Chavannes explained symbolist philosophy, ``a work of art emanates from a confused emotion in which it is contained like an animal in its egg. I meditate on the thought buried in this emotion until it appears lucidly and as distinctly as possible before my eyes. Then I search for an image that translates it with exactitude…This is symbolism if you like.’’ (Jules Laforgue, Symbolist Art Theories, p. 40). Puvis de Chavannes’ subtle palette of soft tones also influenced Petrov-Vodkin’s Symbolist compositions. Petrov-Vodkin painted his contemplative beach scene, Shore two years after Anisfeld’s Prayer (fig. 4).