Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar

Private Collection, Europe, 1960s
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Structural Condition The canvas would appear to be unlined and the turnover and tacking edges have been strengthened with a thin strip-lining. The canvas has a new wooden keyed stretcher. There are two areas of repair visible on the reverse of the canvas, one in the upper left quadrant and another in the lower left quadrant. The canvas is providing a stable structural support. Paint surface The paint surface has a reasonably even varnish layer, although there is evidence of ingrained dirt and the varnish layers, although even, have discoloured. Cleaning should therefore be beneficial and the ingrained dirt is most obvious in the thicker impasto of the flowers. I would be confident that cleaning would result in a worthwhile colour change. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows no clear signs of any retouching, although there are two areas corresponding to the repairs on the reverse of the canvas that fluouresce slightly unevenly and do appear to be retouchings. These are: 1. an area measuring approx. 5 by 2 cm which is in the clouds just above the green trees in the upper right of the composition, and 2. an area measuring approx 1cm in diameter in the flower on the right of the composition. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition with the potential for the overall appearance to be improved as a result of cleaning and revarnishing The above report has been provided by Hamish Dewar of 14 Mason's Yard, London SW1Y 6BU Tel. 020 7930 4004 email hamish@hamishdewar.co.uk.
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The short strokes of pure pigment in Delphiniums create the intense sense of optical vibration for which Grabar was famous. The juxtaposition of complementary yellows and purples in the foreground is a characteristic feature of some of his most famous canvases, in particular his early snowscapes, and reflects his brilliant assimilation of Seurat and Signac's divisionist techniques.

But as the well-known critic Alexei Fedorov-Davydov pointed out, Russian pointillism wasn't simply an innovative technique; it was an entirely new way of looking at landscape. His comments on Grabar's February Day (1904, The State Tretyakov Gallery) could equally describe the present work: 'The first thing that strikes one looking at the picture is his substitution of the distant plane for a subject that is largely in the foreground.... Instead of the previous domination of the general over the particular - of space and air over details and 'objects', here the opposite is true. The particular now govern over the universal.' (A.Fedorov-Davydov, 'On the new character of post-impressionist landscape',18^th - early 20^th century Russian Landscape, 1986, p.241).

This sophisticated inversion of planes sets the present work apart from Grabar's treatment of this subject in 1908 (fig.1) and the conservative composition of In the Garden, a Bed of Delphiniums (1947, Kursk State Picture Gallery).  With its cascading spectrum of hues, Delphiniums reflects Grabar's deep appreciation of nature's richness on a magnificent scale.