Marie Vorobieff Marevna, 1892-1984

Geneva, Petit Palais, Marevna, 1971, Cat. No.34

Paris, Musée de Bourdelle, Marevna et les Montparnos, 1985 (Ex.Cat. p.34)

London, Wildenstein Gallery, Marevna and Montparnasse, 1992 (illustrated in the biographical supplement)

Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery, Marevna (1892-1984), 2004, Cat. No. 79, (Ex.Cat. pp.130-131)

In 1912 Marevna moved to Paris to continue her studies in fine art and soon befriended some of the greatest artists of the early twentieth century, among them Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Fernand Léger, Diego Rivera, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, and Chaim Soutine. Marevna exhibited in the Paris Salons alongside the leading lights of the European avant-garde.

By the beginning of the 1920s Marevna had found her own, unique style, combining elements of Cubism, or "Dimensionalism" as she called it, with a muted form of Pointillism.

In the late 1940s Marevna moved to England but continued to reminisce about her youth in Paris. During the 1960s she produced several large canvases depicting various artists she befriended in Paris many years ago. The present work Homage to Cezanne is a beautiful example of Marevna’s mature style. Painted after Paul Cezanne’s The Cardplayers from 1893-96 (fig.1), Marevna repeats Cezanne’s composition but, through her translucent use of paint, shows a great sensitivity towards colour and an almost scientific approach to its integration with tone and line. Homage to Cezanne reveals the continuing influence of Cubism and Pointillism on her work, however her approach to this famous subject has made the painting her own.