Pavel Varfolomeevich Kuznetsov

Sale: Philips, London, April 23, 1991, lot 54, illustrated
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

This painting is unlined and stretched on an old, perhaps original, stretcher. The canvas and paint layer are stable. There are some slight waves to the canvas in the center. The painting does not appear to have been cleaned recently, if ever. No retouches are discernable under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye. There are a few tiny losses around the edge in the lower left corner and at the center left side, but in general the painting is in very healthy condition. The artist has employed the white ground color in his technique in the village in the center. The small white areas here are not losses but were intentionally made by the artist. 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."

After relinquishing his role as head of the Blue Rose group, Kuznetsov embarked on a series of travels to study the Russian and Central Asian landscape as well as the distinctive visual cultures of the peoples he encountered along the way. During the 1920s and 1930s he traveled along the Crimean and Russian Black Sea coast, and at that time he visited both Sochi and Kislovodsk, where he executed a series of deftly balanced landscape compositions. The present lot is among the artist's finest artistic accomplishments from this period.