Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky

The inscription on the reverse of the offered lot suggests it was probably first acquired following its exhibition at the Moscow Society of Artists (MTX) in 1944, the so-called Exhibition of Six at The State Tretyakov Gallery. Konchalovsky's painted lilacs a number of times in Moscow, where he remained throughout the war. The present work is a rare example of lilac blossom set in a landscape, as opposed to a still life, and undoubtedly draws on Lilac Bush (1889, The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg) by Van Gogh, who remained one of his strongest influences. As Turchin comments in his monograph on the artist, it his hard not to see in his wartime predilection for spring landscapes and bright lilacs a yearning not just for a change in seasons, 'but also for a peaceful life, free from fear for the country's fate' (V.Turchin, Petr Konchalovsky, Moscow, 2008, p.284).

Konchalovsky is 'the bard of flowers, sun and light' wrote Vsevolod Ivanov in his introduction to the artist's 15^th personal exhibition in 1951. 'The previous years were only the approach to his present triumph... Konchalovsky's paints are bright, in his pictures there is plenty of sun and air, his colouring is unusually succulent, he describes his subjects boldly...'. Not all of Konchalovsky's late works bear comparison to his earlier canvases, despite Ivanov's hyperbole, but this rich and verdant painting is in fact a lovely example of what Benois had earlier described as 'the virus of joy' and 'the visual spectacle' that distinguish Konchalovsky's work, an artist 'born with a feel for paint - the ability to rejoice in mixing colours and feast the eye on different surfaces' (A.Benois, 'Mashkov and Konchalovsky', Rech' no.102, 1916).