Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev, 1887-1938

Les Dessins & Peintures D'Extreme-Orient D'Alexandre Iacovleff, Paris, Editions Lucien Vogel, 1922, illustrated p.19
Tchou-Kia -Kien, Le Theartre Chinois, Paris, M. de Brunoff, 1922, illustrated plate 4
Alexandre Iacovleff, Itinérances, Paris, Somogy éditions d'art, 2004, illustrated plate 25

Travels in the Far East in 1917-1918 liberated Alexander Yakovlev from the dark shadow of revolution in Russia, and provided him with a rich store of new impressions.  Three Women in a Box at the Theatre was produced on this trip and can be seen as a masterpiece of late Mir Iskusstva art.

It was a scholarship from the Imperial Academy of Arts that took him first to Peking, then the Chinese provinces, Mongolia and Japan. The tour was highly productive, and on his return to Europe he brought with him an enormous portfolio of sanguine sketches documenting these Far Eastern peoples, drawn from all social strata. Among his most important oils painted here a significant body relate to the Chinese Theatre in Peking.

The theatre already occupied a central place in the artist’s early work.  He was a member of the Mir Iskusstva exhibiting society from 1912, during its second period of activity.  Many of its artists designed for the theatre and had in turn worked for Diaghilev’s ballets russes in Paris. Yakovlev designed for the theatre, but also in a wider sense, the theatre acted as a doorway to his imagination as a painter.  In the most famous of his early paintings, a double portrait with Vasily Shukhaev of 1914, the artists depict each other as the Italian Commedia dell’Arte characters Pierrot and Harlequin (fig. 1). Yakovlev and Shukhaev had spent nearly two years together in Italy at this time, and their technique was influenced in particular by late Renaissance art, which remains evident in Yakovlev’s painting until the mid 20s.

The Chinese Theatre distilled his two passions for theatre and travel and this first trip was to mark the beginning of numerous expeditions.  In emigration from Russia in the 20s and 30s, he visited Africa, Ethiopia, and he returned one more to the Far East in 1931-32.  He oversaw publication of albums illustrating the work he produced on these trips, which perhaps revealed a desire to educate the European public about foreign cultures.  His fascination for the Chinese Theatre led to his writing and publishing a book on his return to France, in which the offered lot is illustrated (fig. 2).  It not only records his personal impressions, but also includes a history of the Chinese theatre and its significance in modern China.  He was particularly struck by the sheer antiquity of the tradition: “Stylised, but fundamentally human, this art form, created by one people has been shaped by time.  This art, in which the individual will is ruled by noble traditions of past dynasties, connects us with ancient epochs and gives  us a view of China which Marco Polo brought to us and which we can feel in the writings of Confucius.”

Although an articulate observer of real life in his writings as well as his sanguine portraits, in his large Chinese Theatre compositions Yakovlev seeks to present a more complex picture and it is in these works that we see him as his most expressive. Essentially products of Mir Iskusstva art, Three Women in a Box at the Theatre is one of the most striking from this series. In these works elements from masquerade and costume to grimace and bluff are all employed and mingle with the sobriety of ancient tradition. Mir Iskusstva artists looked to the past and revived bygone historical eras in their art both as a reaction against Realism and to mine new sources of inspiration and design. In this respect, with their emphasis on ancient tradition, Yakovlev’s Chinese Theatre works strike a similar chord.  Additionally, present are hallmarks of Mir Iskusstva style: a love of pattern, elegance and beauty.

In the Chinese Theatre works Yakovlev often chooses an unusual viewpoint echoing the practice of post-Impressionist painter Edgar Degas in his ballet and theatre compositions, although perhaps less radical here. The actors are depicted from an angle, sometimes revealing part of the audience (fig.3).  In the offered lot we see only the spectators and nothing of the scene unfolding on stage.  For us, the spectators take centre stage, and a level of mystery is created as we can only guess at the drama they observe. Yakovlev gives us clues, yet ultimately tells here the old tale of subjective individual response: the expression of each spectator is remarkably different despite the fact they are watching the same drama. He takes us from the passive disinterest of the servants in the background, to the emotional expression of melancholy and longing of the central figure. The latter appears deeply moved, yet her hand, in a pose recalling Italian Mannerist art, rests with elegance and absolute control on the wooden counter in front.

The key to Chinese dramatic art, outlined expertly in Yakovlev’s book, is its instructive nature and the moral tale it can offer those who listen.  Yakovlev suggests that although this art form illuminates various important and ancient truths about its own civilisation, those in the present need to be receptive to the wisdom.