Konstantin Andreevich Somov

``…For them the call of the past was stronger than the call of the future’’ (Berdyaev)

Konstantin Somov’s Les Amoreux is a highly stylized and technically brilliant portrayal of lovers executed in Somov’s inimitable graphic manner.  By 1898, Konstantin Somov was closely associated with the exhibiting society and journal Mir Isskusstva, or World of Art.  The World of Art artists isolated themselves from the political and social affairs of the day and looked to art of the past for inspiration.  In contrast to the prevailing taste for Realism, the World of Art artist’s believed ``Art is free, Life is Parlayzed.’’

Les Amoreux exemplifies Somov’s ability to convey lightness of spirit, playfulness, and intimacy, qualities associated with French 18^th century Rococo art.  Somov’s works often referenced the Rococo period where elegance, refined manners and witty discourse prevailed among the high society of Mme de Pompadour’s era. Somov’s ladies and cavaliers in their wigs and crinolines fraternize in parks and gardens at all hours of the day, while his harlequins and columbines disguised perfunctorily roam coquettishly in their lavish masquerades. Les Amoreux belongs to Somov’s dream world, this sensual fêtes champêtre is a meditation on love and lust, a theme Somov returns to in many works of this period (fig. 1 and 2). 

The two lovers in the present composition are passionately entwined in each other’s arms. They are situated alongside a river in a lightly wooded landscape.  Our male lover tilts his head ever so slightly; he is caught halfway between romantic rapture and concern, as he stares towards the approaching storm.  His dutiful horse meanwhile busily feeds his own appetite. Painted circa 1917-18, Les Amoreux is an erotically charged work reminiscent of the sentimental and pastoral scenes of French artists Boucher and Fragonard.

Many of the World of Art artists were closely involved in theater and set design under the tutelage of impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who organized so many of the World of Art events. Leon Bakst, Alexandre Benois and Nicholas Roerich, among others were especially active in this area. Despite Konstantin Somov’s personal fascination with the theater, unlike his colleagues, he did not focus his energies on theatre or set design.  Somov’s lifelong interest in spectacle and fantasy, however, assured a deep-rooted theatricality in his compositions.

Although Alexandre Benois believed in 1908 that the ``era of marquises is over..’’ Somov never fully abandoned his dream world, as evidenced by the present lot, painted during the early upheavals of the Russian revolution, a perfect political reality to eschew.