Boris Izrailevich Anisfeld

Anisfeld family
Shepherd Gallery, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owners in 1984

Reinhardt Gallery, The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition, March 25 - 12 April 1924, No.11
Boston, Boston Art Club and Twentieth Century Club, Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Boris Anisfeld, 10 December 1924 - 3 January 1925, no.45

The Boris Anisfeld Exhibition exhibition catalogue, March 25 - 12 April 1924, cat.no.11
Exhibition catalogue Paintings and Drawings by Boris Anisfeld, Boston, 10 December 1924 - 3 January 1925, no.45

Original canvas which is quite coarse. There is a layer of light surface dirt and some light stretcher marks running across the centre of the work. There is some craquelure in the lower right corner by the inner frame edge. UV light reveals an area of retouching to the sitter's face, wrists, forearms and right shoulder. There are a few further spots of retouching visible in places elsewhere. The presence of an opaque layer of varnish prevents a more conclusive examination. Held in a simple black frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Whereas the Mir Iskusstva group was best known for its emphasis on drawing and line, Boris Anisfeld was renowned as a painterly colourist. This extraordinary sense of colour combined with a vivid imagination were the properties most celebrated in his theatrical work and those most admired in his painting. His teachers included Kostandi, Repin and Kardovsky, some of the most talented portrait artists in Russia, which accounts for the equal emphasis he placed on technical ability.

 

The contemplative mood in Portrait of the Artist's wife is characteristic of some of Anisfeld's greatest pieces, the warm reds, greens and oranges particularly are widespread in his portraits and ballet designs. The typically dark background should overwhelm the canvas, yet sitter exudes such warmth and humanity that she appears to glow against the blackness and with the African motifs on the right, the atmosphere is one of quiet, yet faintly exotic domesticity.

 

In 1917 Anisfeld and his wife left Russia via Vladivostok for the United States. His own explanation for leaving was that "the muses are silent when the cannons boom". Though he evaded the hardships of the Soviet era by emigrating, he suffered great personal tragedy in 1933 when his wife committed suicide. She had been a source of inspiration throughout Anisfeld's life and he never truly recovered.