Nikolai Dmitrievich Milioti, 1874-1962

A. Tolstoy, Khudozhniki Russkoi Emigratsii, Moscow, 2005, ill. p 3/2

Fête galante is a rare and early masterpiece by one of the most important artists of the ‘Blue Rose’ group. The symbolist movement in Russia had developed in the early years of the twentieth century out of a reaction to the predominance of Realism and the belief that art could become the major agent of change in Russian society. The blue rose of their logo denoted the aesthetic perfection to which these artists aspired.

Nikolai Milioti’s work is firmly associated with the second wave of symbolist artists predominantly from the Moscow Academy of Arts who shared not only an aesthetic philosophy but also common themes and a similar palette. As Milioti himself explained in the first edition of Zolotoe runo, they sought ‘to create a centre into all that is live would flow’. Their vision was close to that of the Nabi group, who believed easel painting no longer relevant to modern life and sought to manipulate the observable world for emotive and decorative effect. The blue rose artists drew their inspiration from the mystical imagery of Mikhail Vrubel and the soft tones of Borisov-Musatov, but in contrast to the tragic lyricism of the latter, their dream-like depictions of the subconscious brim with life.

Sergei Diaghilev’s 1906 exhibition of Russian Art at the salon d’automne in Paris was seminal in bringing together this second group of symbolists artists. Nine works by Milioti were exhibited at the salon, possibly including the offered lot since a work titled Fête galante is recorded in the catalogue under number 374.

Executed in the same year as Kuznetsov’s celebrated work Blue Fountain (fig 1.) Fête galante similarly embodies in its imagery, colours and technique the totality of the symbolist vision. As with a number of his best-known works, Milioti incorporates the decorative and nostalgic vision of eighteenth century outdoor festivities which had inspired World of Art painters such as Konstantin Somov and Alexander Benois into the canon of symbolist imagery as illustrative of the dream-like world where a true artistic synthesis is created (fig.2). Every aspect of the work is designed to stimulate the senses, from the treatment of the trembling, other-worldly silhouettes, to the colourful torrent of pointillist brushstrokes covering the surface of the canvas.

In his 1907 appreciation of the new trends in modern Russian art, Sergei Makovsky, heralded Milioti’s talent for successfully creating a truly multi-sensory experience. ‘One emerges from Nikolai Milioti’s magical cave with vision blurred and deafened by the ringing of the play of colours […] their effect is not superficial or physical, but psychological; in the chromatic chords there is almost always complex, acute confessions.’ Milioti admired Vrubel’s ability to paint his subjects as if they were precious stones, bewitching the viewer with their inner light. In the half-materialised world of Fête galante Milioti has brilliantly captured both these visible and invisible realities.