Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev

The following condition report has been supplied by: Hamish Dewar Ltd, Fine Art Conservation, 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street St James's, London SW1Y 6BU tel + 44 (0)20 7930 4004, fax + 44 (0)20 7930 4100, hamish@hamishdewar.co.uk www.hamishdewar.co.uk Structural Condition The artist's canvas has been loosely attached to a board and it maybe felt preferable that the canvas should be attached to a keyed stretcher by strip-lining the turnover and tacking edges. The canvas is certainly stable, if rather uneven, in it's present state with no evidence of any structural instability in the past and full lining would definitely not be required. Paint surface The paint surface has a reasonably even varnish layer although there is one surface scratch in the upper left which has not penetrated the paint layers but only the varnish layers. The painting would benefit from cleaning and revarnishing. No retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in very good condition and the overall appearance should be significantly improved should the painting be cleaned and revarnished.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Boris Grigoriev is recognised as one of the most psychologically compelling artists of the early twentieth century in Russia. Born in Moscow, he attended the Saint Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, and he was deeply influenced by his childhood experiences in the ancient Russian town of Rybinsk. At once both conservative and revolutionary, his canvases reflect both German Expressionist and French post-Impressionist influences, while his reliance on contour line and his rejection of plasticity have been linked to icon and Renaissance painting. Grigoriev expressed interest in numerous seemingly opposite movements, from Critical Realism to Symbolism and Impressionism to Cubo-Futurism, and he juxtaposed motifs from each to create a heightened sense of compositional and psychological tension.

The portrait genre occupied a central position in Grigoriev's artistic output from the beginning of his career and is distinguished by a tendency towards caricature. For this reason, Gigoriev preferred models whose external appearance was strongly suggestive of their character. Initially, he would produce numerous swift crayon portraits of his sitters or compositional studies, which tended to be more restrained. However, the painted portraits were often finished purely from memory in order to encourage an inevitable exaggeration of his subject's most salient features.

Grigoriev's portraits are remarkable not only for their artistry, but also for their subjects. The fundamental cycles of his career—Rasseia, Faces of Russia and Visages du Monde—comprise myriad images of peasants and patrons, poets and performers. The artist portrayed such well known figures as Nikolai Klyuev, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Kustodiev and Maxim Gorky, to name but a few. His links to the literary world were extensive and provided the artist with inspiration throughout his life, resulting in some of the most enduring images of Russian nineteenth and twentieth century classics.

Grigoriev executed a small number of self portraits during his career, and the present lot is one of his finest and earliest compositions in oil to appear at auction. Dated 1915, it was executed in the same year that Grigoriev visted Ilya Repin at his country retreat, Penaty. Interestingly, the artist wears the very same clothing that he wore in a portrait drawn by Repin during their time together, and that portrait—Repin's Portrait of Boris Grigoriev —was sold as part of the Rostropovich Collection at Sotheby's in 2007.