Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev

Galerie Jean Chauvelin, Paris, 1969
Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York, 1971
Sale: Sotheby's Parke Bernet, New York, November 3, 1978, lot 311, illustrated
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

Paris, Galerie Jean Chauvelin, Aspects de l'Avant-Garde Russe, 1905-1925, 1969, no. 22
New York, Leonard Hutton Galleries, Russian Avant-Garde, 1908-1922, 1971-1972, no. 39
New Rochelle, Castle Gallery, College of New Rochelle, Russian Avant-garde Art from the Schreiber Collection, September-October 1984, no. 2
Storrs, The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, Russian Avant-garde Art from the Schreiber Collection, January-March 1986

Louis Réau, André Levinson, André Antoine and Clare Sheridan, Boris Grigorieff, Visages de Russie, Paris, 1923, p. 25, illustrated
Galerie Jean Chauvelin, Aspects de l'Avant-Garde Russe, 1905-1925, Paris, 1969, p. 5, illustrated
Leonard Hutton Galleries, Russian Avant-Garde, 1908-1922, New York, 1971-72, p. 86, illustrated
Jennifer Roth, Russian Avant-garde Art from the Schreiber Collection, New York, 1984, illustrated
Tamara Galeeva, Boris Grigoriev, Moscow, 1995, pl. 33, illustrated
G. G. Pospelov, Liki Rossii: Boris Grigoriev, Moscow, 1999, pl. 77, illustrated
Tamara Galeeva, Grigoriev, St. Petersburg, 2007, p. 135, illustrated

Although not viewed outside of its frame this work seems to be in wonderful condition. It should always be framed behind glass. There are three small spots of foxing in the lower right, but hardly any other blemishes at all are visible to this robustly painted gouache. There is a vertical scratch in the moustache on the left side of the face and a couple of very small warn areas in the male figure's hat at the top left in the blue section, but these are all minor and the picture can certainly be hung in its current state. The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
"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."

...You ask me how I came to paint the series of pictures entitled 'Visages Russes.' I have been watching and studying the Russian people for many years, both before and since the war and revolution, and these paintings are the fruits of my observation.

If, during the revolution, I have been studying the people so intently, and if the work I have done at this period manifests its spirit so frankly and strongly, it may be due to the fact that circumstances compelled me to remain in Russia so long without leaving. My conception of the Russian people is both intuitive and artistic. Even as a child I was struck by the animal aspect of the Russian people. It is this same animal that I see in the Russian peasant of today, and I am glad to note that Gorky has come to a similar conclusion, for Gorky's impression proves that I had a clearer vision of reality than those who were idealizing the Russian masses, or did not know the actual Slav. 'Right,' 'left,' 'white,' 'red,' or 'black,' the Russians are animals, and that is why the coloring of my 'Visages Russes' is the typical mujik coloring...

--from a letter from Boris Grigoriev to curator Christian Brinton, printed in the exhibition catalogue for Grigoriev's 1923 exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum.

The countenance of the older man at center of the present composition echoes that of Old Man from Olonets, a figure Grigoriev portrayed previously in his Rasseia series. However, this lot comes from Grigoriev's monumental Faces of Russia (Visages de Russie) cycle, an extension of the artist's earlier Rasseia portraiture and one of his most profound and psychologically descriptive series. Although Grigoriev left Russia in 1918, the faces of Russian peasants continued to haunt him, and he worked tirelessly on this evolved cycle while living in France in the early 1920s. The result is an intense study of the faces of "primitive" people; each portrait depicts the peasant in a uniquely harsh light, exposing the hardships of their lives through their rugged faces and expressive eyes. Every subject is charged with universal human traits and reveals a moving impression of weariness at odds with unrelenting resilience. Through the artist's characteristically vivid palette and bold, Cubist-inspired brushstrokes, the viewer is drawn into the subject's world and inner spirit.

Grigoriev began to refer to his portraits as Liki (in Russian) or Visages--words with significant religious overtones that emphasize the similarity between the faces he depicted and religious icons. He would later use the term Visages du Monde as an all-encompassing title for his portraiture outside Russia, thereby underscoring the universality of the "primitive" human soul that he depicted and the sense of a deeper spirituality within each profile.