Mikhail Fedorovich Larionov

Jean Saucet, Paris, a gift from the artist in 1962
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Goncharova, Larionov, September - November 1963, No.69 (exhibition label on the reverse)

Structural Condition The canvas is unlined and is inscribed on the reverse and is providing an even and secure structural support. Paint surface The paint surface has a very dry appearance which is typical of the artist. No retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in excellent, original and stable condition.
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Executed circa 1909.

 

 

Garden in Tiraspol, Bessarabia is a fine example of Mikhail Larionov's mature, primitivist oeuvre. As is well-documented, the artist spent his summer holidays during the 1900s and early 1910s in his native Tiraspol. Working outside in this charming region, with its 'marvellous southern sun' and luxurious vegetation, always inspired particular emotions and a wave of creative strength in the artist. He seemed to want to capture every moment of his time in Tiraspol, as he experienced, in his own words 'a sense of being bewitched and intoxicated by life'. The artist's favourite 'studio' was his grandmother's large garden, which was planted with apricot trees. In his Parisian memoirs Larionov wrote: 'There is no other tree in the garden which can provoke such tender memories in my soul as the apricot tree. [...] When I look at some of my old studies from Tiraspol, feelings of such pain and bitter oppressive sadness arise, accompanied with such joy at the same time, that tears well up inside me and I get a lump in my throat which makes it hard to breathe.'

This picture was painted as a study and was probably executed in the morning, the artist's favourite time of day. The little corner of the garden is depicted with slight foreshortening, with the trees in close up. The trees with their low white-washed trunks and long, bending branches form a thick canopy. The slanting rays of the sun, penetrating through the crowns of the trees, scatter golden flashes on the leaves and ground.

The image is based on the use of free, broad strokes – a testament to the speed at which the artist worked. The canopy of the trees is remarkably indistinct. The artist makes extensive use of black contour lines. The manner in which the vegetation is painted, and the general use of colour in this work is comparable with such paintings as Garden Path, c. 1909 (private collection) (fig.1) and Still-life with Branch, 1909 (State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg) (fig.2) and its composition is analogous to that of an earlier work, Garden, 1904 (Russian Museum) (fig.3).

In 1962 Larionov gave the painting to the famous French art historian, Jean Saucet. Saucet was a specialist in twentieth-century paintings and the editor of a series of books about outstanding artists, such as Max Ernst, René Magritte, Man Ray and others.

 When he presented Saucet with the painting, Larionov signed and dated it 1902, however Larionov often 'rejuvenated' his works in an attempt to make his own artistic achievements seem to belong to an earlier period than is the case. Garden in Tiraspol, Bessarabia was exhibited in Paris in 1963 with the artist's title and date.  Since the picture appears not to have been exhibited prior to this and is not identifiable on the list of Larionov's works compiled by Eganburi (Ilya Zdanevich), it can therefore only be dated tentatively towards the end of the first decade of the 1900s.