Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova

Alexandra Tomilina-Larionova, the widow of Mikhail Larionov
Sotheby & Co. London, Impressionist and Modern Paintings, 10 December 1969, lot 207

Frankfurt, Karmeliterkloster, Beitrag der Russen zur modernen Kunst, 1959, no.57

Original canvas. The paint surface is dirty and would benefit from a light surface clean. Otherwise, in good overall conditon. UV light shows no signs of retouching. Held in a simple wood frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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With its energetic rendering of form and series of sharp diagonals, Printemps is a stunning example of Rayonist principles by one of the movement's central figures. Described as a synthesis of Cubism, Futurism and Orphism, Rayonism was Russia's first abstract style of painting and changed the direction of the nation's art, mimicking the impact of the Vorticists and Futurists in Britain and Italy, which provoked equally fierce debate.

Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov defended the charge of non-objectivity in their 1913 manifesto by arguing that what we appreciate most in art is the distinctive way in which a painter manipulates 'colour, saturation, the relation of coloured masses, depth and texture; anyone who is interested in painting can give these his full attention'. Liberated from the constraints of space and time, painting could at last become self-sufficient, like music, and impart a sensation of a fourth dimension. The impression of spring light streaming through blades of grass in Printemps is accompanied by just these musical, unearthly qualities.

The label on the reverse bears the address of the studio Goncharova and Larionov shared on Rue Jacques Callot in Paris. In emigration Goncharova remained true to the avant-garde principles she had pioneered in the 1910s. The present work has lost none of the confidence or exuberance that instils the 1913 manifesto: 'We have no modesty - we declare this bluntly and frankly - we consider ourselves to be the creators of modern art.... We spare no strength to make the sacred tree of art grow to great heights, and what does it matter to us that little parasites swarm in its shadow - let them, they know of the tree's existence from its shadow.'