Abraham Manievich

Acquired by the present owner in France in the 1990s

Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Peintures de Abraham Manievitch, 26 February - 15 March 1913

Exhibition catalogue, Peintures de Abraham Manievitch, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, illustrated p. 23 (titled Par un temps triste)

When Abraham Manievich arrived in Paris in March 1912, he brought with him a group of paintings that became the centrepiece of his solo show at Galerie Durand-Ruel in 1913.  Many of these works had been painted in the preceding years in his native Ukraine and during his travels to Italy, France and Switzerland. The offered lot is one of the works painted in Ukraine.

During a visit to Capri in 1910, Manievich told his friend and admirer Maxim Gorky of his plans to show his work in Paris.  By that time, he was already well-established as a painter in Kiev.  In 1909-10 he had a solo exhibition at the Kiev City Museum, and the Museum went on to acquire one of his works for their permanent collection. Manievich's successful exhibition at Galerie Durand-Ruel helped establish his international reputation and led to his 1916 exhibitions at the Dobychina Art Bureau in Petrograd and the Saurov Gallery in Moscow.

The offered lot is a hallmark Manievich composition: a landscape seen through an arabesque of trees. Using a network of elongated brushstrokes, Manievich created a web through which one can see the emotive winter landscape. Although the image is representational, Manievich's broad brushed style demonstrates his interest in the illusory nature of the painted image and his engagement with ideas that preoccupied the avant-garde artists of his time.

We are grateful to Alan Pensler for providing this catalogue note.