Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev

Paris, Galerie La Boëtie, Exposition des Artistes Russes a Paris, 1921

Tamara Galeyeva, Grigoriev, St. Petersburg: Zolotoi Vek, 2007, p. 132, illustrated
Galerie La Boëtie, Exposition des Artistes Russes a Paris, Paris, 1921, no. 46

The 1920s was an auspicious decade for Boris Grigoriev, who was featured in prestigious international exhibitions, saw the gradual formation of a circle of collectors of his work, and received many portrait commissions. In 1921, Grigoriev became a member of one of the largest groupings of Russian artists in Paris, Mir iskusstva (World of Art). Founded by an innovative group of artists in the spring of 1921, World of Art--the Parisian "sister" to the Russian-based organization of that same name founded approximately twenty years earlier--turned out to be one of the most enduring artistic societies in the pre-war immigrant circle, lasting up until the beginning of World War II.

Most of the Russian art-related critical reviews of the time described Grigoriev as the most talented representative of contemporary Russian art, placing him alongside such prominent figures as Alexander Iacovleff and Vasily Shukhaev. Grigoriev's Hommes (People) series and a group of female portraits from that time embody a significant aspect of the artist's stylistic evolution during this period. The portraits combine an acute psychological dimension with decorative patterning of the painterly surface.

In June of 1921, World of Art organized the Exposition des Artistes Russes à Paris at the Galerie La Boétie in Paris. Many reviews of the exhibition appeared in Russian-language periodicals in Paris and Berlin. The show included over forty works by Grigoriev, including Portrait of the Poetess Anna Sergeevna Sergeeva. On June 21, 1921, the critic Mogiliansky wrote in the Paris-based Russian newspaper Poslednie novosti: "Boris Grigoriev is a very profound and talented artist. In his series Visages de Russie (Faces of Russia) it is necessary to study the images with a great deal of attention....Grigoriev is a typical artist of contemporary reality, not only because of the subject matter, but also because of his technique... It is hard to force oneself to stop looking at his faces. From his series Faces of Russia one moves without losing any interest to his series Les Hommes. From searching in the crowd--to individual, bright characters; to the Grandmother of the Revolution, E. N. Breshko-Breshkovskaia, Mrs. Andreeva, the poetess Anna Sergeeva, and a portrait of the artist's wife."