Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky

Paris, Chambre Syndicale de la Curiosite et de Beaux-Arts, Second Solo Exhibition of Petr Konchalovsky, 4-19 March 1925
Moscow, Galereya nashi khudozhniki, 'Vystavka kartin iz chastnykh sobranii pamyati Solomona Shustera 1934-1995, 22 September - 30 October 2005, no.16

P.Muratov, Zhivopis' Konchalovskogo, Moscow, 1923, p.46
Konchalovsky. Khudozhestvennoe nasledie, Iskusstvo, Moscow, 1964, p.101
Exhibition catalogue Vystavka kartin iz chastnykh sobranii pamyati Solomona Shustera 1934-1995, Moscow: Trilistnik, 2005, p. 38-39, no.16 (illustrated)

The canvas has been lined. The paint surface is fairly clean. There are fine lines of paint shrinkage in places. There are minor flecks of paintloss in places. UV light reveals a few minor spots of retouching in places. Held in a partial gilt wood frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Petr Konchalovsky was raised in a family of artists and writers in Slaviansk, Ukraine, and he moved to Moscow as an adolescent. His Moscow home was frequented by members of the urban art scene, including Valentin Serov, Mikhail Vrubel and Vasily Surikov, who would later become his father-in-law. Konchalovsky went on to study painting in Paris and Saint Petersburg, where he responded uniquely to various methods of Western European modernism, including Post-impressionism and Fauvism. He was soon recognised as a founding member of the pivotal Jack of Diamonds group, and his debt to artists such painters as Cézanne and Matisse is well-documented.

After the 1917 Revolution, Konchalovsky became a professor at SVOMAS (Free Arts Studios), and his compositions of the late 1910s continued to reference his Post-impressionistic and Fauvist roots. The present lot is dated 1918, a particularly rare and desirable period in the artist's career, and it is evident that Konchalovsky wished for his expressive palette to dominate his composition; accordingly, he simplified his forms, creating a bold colour scheme that captures the essence of the scene at hand. The result is a sumptuously decorative and harmonious still life that is without doubt one of the artist's most impressive masterpieces.