Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova

Mikhail Larionov (acquired in 1962)
Alexandra Tomilina-Larionova (sold: Sotheby's, London, May 3, 1967, lot 151, illustrated)
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Gontcharova, Larionov, September-November, 1963, no. 28n
Roslyn Harbor, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island Collects: An Exhibition Celebrating Art from Long Island Collections, May-August, 2002

Nassau County Museum of Art, Long Island Collects: An Exhibition Celebrating Art from Long Island Collections, Roslyn Harbor, New York, 2002, p. 19, illustrated

In 1917, Goncharova moved permanently from Moscow to Paris, where she focused her efforts on theatrical designs for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes as well as other companies. She also continued to paint in oils, and she experimented with various modernist styles. Lady with a Parasol represents her interest in post-war Purism, an extension of Cubism that emphasized the aesthetic beauty and purity of form. Purism served as a reaction against the distortions and excesses of Cubism and Cubo-Futurism; it featured a reserved palette, flat surface and unbroken contour line. In Lady with a Parasol, Goncharova embraced a very familiar subject matter--one which had been portrayed by numerous painters, mostly Impressionists, and one she herself had portrayed in at least two other compositions, one in Impressionist style and one other in Purist style. Rather than merely dissecting her subjects, Goncharova reconstructed and elevated them, and in doing so she underscored the harmony and simplicity of their forms.

Lady with a Parasol was in Goncharova's personal collection when she passed away in 1962. As part of her estate, the painting was inherited by Larionov, who included it in the exhibition Gontcharova, Larionov at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1963. Though the painting was not reproduced in the exhibition's catalogue, archival material has proven that the work was exhibited as number 28n. When Larionov died in the following year, the work was passed on to his wife, Alexandra Tomilina-Larionova, who sold the work at Sotheby's in 1967. The work has remained in private collections ever since, and in 2002 it was hung in the Nassau County Museum of Art exhibition, Long Island Collects: An Exhibition Celebrating Art from Long Island Collections.

This work is both rare and unusual; Goncharova painted few works in this style and they almost never appear at auction. Furthermore, the composition exhibits such refined chromatic and formal balance as seen only in her original paintings, and even then, rarely does she manage to create something so reserved, so understatedly beautiful. Lady with a Parasol is a true masterpiece, representing the artist at her very best.