Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev

Private Collection, California, circa early 1980s

St. Petersburg, Mir Iskusstva, 1916, no. 114

This painting is in beautiful condition. It is unlined and the paint layer is stable. The stretcher marks are slightly visible in the upper sky. There is one small retouch in the sky in the center left yet other than this there appear to be no retouches to the painting. There is a small reinforcement on the reverse in the lower left and lower right, but we cannot positively identify and retouches on the surface associated with these reinforcements. There is one area in the center of the picture to the right of one of the small houses, which looks like it may be a small paint loss, but it might also be the technique of 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."

Although primarily known as a book illustrator, stage designer and portrait painter and for his love of his homeland and all things Russian, Boris Kustodiev displays a side of his life and œuvre that is equally important in this delightful view of the South of France: his talent for painting landscapes, domestic and, on rare occasion, foreign.

Villas, Antibes  was painted at a pivotal time in the artist's life, while he was recovering from an illness. He traveled first to Switzerland to recover and then, in 1913, to Juan-les-Pins near Cannes in the South of France. Villas, Antibes dates from this sojourn on that coast. Its distant view of the hilly coastline, picked out in the blues and purples that recall Cézanne's views of Mont Saint-Victoire, and the deep azure of the bay itself contrast wonderfully with the strident orange-reds of the roof-tiles and the lush greenery that punctuates the scene. The signboard À louer ("for rent") leads us through partly open gates into someone else's world, someone else's haven: seen through the eyes of an artist with an ailing body but still with a vibrant spirit of mind.