Martiros Sergeevich Saryan

Collection Aram Abramyan, Yerevan

N.Stepanian, Kollektsiya Abramyana. Painting, Yerevan: Sovetakan Grokh, 1981, No.87 (143)

Muzei russkogo iskusstva: Kollektsiya professora A.Ya.Abramyana exhibition catalogue, Yerevan: Sovetakan Grokh, 1989, p.109, Cat.No.179 (210) illustrated

Original canvas is sandwiched between two sheets of glass. There is some surface dirt and areas of paint loss to the corneres and minor flakes elsewhere. Uv light reveals no apparent signs of retouching. Held in a modern painted wood frame and behind glass; unexamined out of frame.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This intensely-hued depiction of trees in the midday heat is typical of Martiros Saryan's landscape-painting towards the end of the 1910s. The years following his marriage to Lusik Agayan in 1916 marked a period of great spiritual fulfilment for Saryan and this is certainly reflected in the works painted at this time, which radiate great artistic confidence and visual energy.

 

Throughout his oeuvre, Saryan strove to achieve the purity of colour which he had first seen as a young artist in the Impressionist works at Sergei Schukin's house.

"Gauguin, with his new religion which opened the inner spiritual world of savages to European man, is amazing. Cezanne is peerless, firm and convincing with his opaque and radiant painting. Van Gogh (...) restless and disturbed"

(The artist in 1909 quoted in L.Mirzoian (ed.) Saryan: 1880-1972, Samara: Agni, 2003, p. 86)

The offered lot owes much to the treatment of forms in Gauguin's Polynesian landscapes (fig.1). In Trees, the salient features of the landscape such as the foliage become generalised blocks of colour, as they appear to the human eye in very bright sunlight.