Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev

Cyrille Grigoriev, Cagnes sur Mer
Marcel Fleiss, Galerie 1900-2000
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1970s

New York, Academy of Allied Arts, Boris Grigoriev, 1920--1935, 1935
Santiago, Sala Chile, Museo de Bellas Artes, Boris Grigorieff, 1936

Academy of Allied Arts, Boris Grigoriev, 1920--1935, New York, 1935, no. 1 
"Trio of One-man Shows," Edward Alden Jewell, New York Times, November 24, 1935, p. X10
"15 Years of Grigoriev's Art is on View," The Art Digest, December 1, 1935, p. 12
"Boris Grigoriev," Revista de Arte, Años II, no. 10, 1936
Tamara Galeyeva, Grigoriev, St. Petersburg: Zolotoi Vek, 2007, p. 190 and no. 217, illustrated

The Inspector General was painted more than a decade after Boris Grigoriev established himself internationally, and it serves as a rare example of his return to Russian and theatrical themes later in his career.

This painting was hung in Grigoriev's solo exhibition at the Academy of Allied Arts from November 21 to December 21, 1935, and at that time it was reproduced in an article in the New York Times ("Trio of One-man Shows," Edward Alden Jewell, November 24, 1935, p. X10). There it was titled Characters in Gogol's "Inspector General" and was attributed to Grigoriev's Faces of Russia ("Visages de la Russie") cycle, although Grigoriev, hoping to prove himself a more versatile artist, had long before renounced his well-known Faces. As written in the Times, "most striking of all the miscellany outspread upon the walls of the present exhibition room may be  esteemed that pungent, racy portrayal of characters in the "Revisor" by Gogol (known in translation as "The Inspector General")."

It was also described in The Art Digest ("15 Years of Grigoriev's Art is on View," December 1, 1935, p. 12): "One large panel, inspired by the Moscow Art Players and painted last summer, interprets Gogol's "Revisor," showing all of the characters participating in this satirical attack on the governor of the province." It seems that Grigoriev painted this work in the fall of 1935 in New York, where he had taken on the role of Director of the Department of Art at the Academy of Allied Arts. The faces in his painting reflect those of certain actors of the Prague troupe of the Moscow Art Theatre, which performed "Revisor" at a broadway theatre around that same time. According to catalogue materials from Grigoriev's show at the Academy, The Inspector General was the very first entry (there it was titled Revisor, Gogol and it was explicitly grouped amongst his Faces of Russia cycle; see Boris Grigoriev Exhibition, November 21-December 21, 1935, Academy of Allied Arts), and it was still his property when the show opened.

It seems probable that The Inspector General was exhibited at least once more, in Grigoriev's 1936 solo exhibition at the Sala Chile of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, for it was reproduced in an article about that show ("Boris Grigoriev," Revista de Arte, Años II, no. 10, 1936).

A small number of related works on paper exist, including the gouache titled Etude sur le 'Revizor' de Gogol (prov. Neumeister, Munich), which was recently sold at auction for an impressive sum.

Compositionally, Grigoriev's scene captures the very same eloquence of the gripping conclusion of "The Inspector General." In both the painting and the play, the Governor stands at center while the entire cast poses simultaneously at either side, all shocked by the words they have just heard. The monumentality of the scene is conveyed perfectly through the art of painting--whereas the actors would stand still for more than a minute of silence, Grigoriev's figures remain posed that way for eternity.

Of course the real "satirical attack" of Gogol's "The Inspector General" is not just on the governor of the province, but also on the entire provincial social and political bureaucracy. Fittingly, Grigoriev depicts the central characters individually, giving each face its own characteristic, even comical expression, and dressing each body in distinctive, ostentatious costume.  Meanwhile, at the edges and in the background, he hides the tired faces, soulful eyes and humble costume typical of his Faces of Russia cycle. He imbues these background figures--the poor and the helpless--with real emotion and thereby expresses his sympathy for them, placing them in stark contrast to the parodied and impractical social elite.

Thus the gravity of Grigoriev's painting is perhaps more nuanced than the conclusion of Gogol's play, for Grigoriev attempts to recreate the complexity of Gogol's farce in just one scene. The faces in the foreground are at first but humorous caricatures, and only after careful study does the scene transform. It is then that the roles shift, the gravity sinks in, and the haunting faces of unrequited Russia demand our apologetic pause.