Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky

Moscow, Vsekokhudozhnik, Vosmaia personalnaia vystavka proizvedenii P.P.Konchalovskogo, 1932
Moscow, State Historical Museum, Khudozhniki RSFSR za 15 let, 20 June 1933- 12 February 1934
Moscow, Klub imeni Gorkogo, Vystavka proizvedenii P.P.Konchalovskogo, 1934, N 29
Krasnoiarsk, Vystavka proizvedenii zasluzhennogo deiatelia iskusstv P.P.Konchalovskogo, 1946
St Petersburg, The State Russian Museum; Moscow, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Petr Konchalovsky. K evoliutsii russkogo avangarda, 2010

Exhibition catalogue proizvedeii P.P.Konchalovskogo, 1934, N 29, p.8 ill.
V.Nikolsky, Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky, Moscow: Vsekhudozhniki, 1936, p.64, illustrated
K.Frolova, Konchalovsky, Khudozhestvennoe nasledie, Moscow: Iskusstva, 1964, p.125, illustrated
V.Turchin, Petr Konchalovsky, Moscow: Belyi Gorod, 2008, p.228 illustrated
I.Afanaseva, Petr Konchalovsky, K evoliutsii russkogo avangarda, St.Petersburg: Palace Editions, 2010, p.143, illustrated

The canvas has been strip lined. The paint surface is slightly dirty. There is a spot of paint loss to the corner of the house in the lower right section. UV light reveals no apparent retouching. Held in a painted wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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In 1931 the Konchalovsky family were based at no.10 Bolshaya Sadovaya in the famous house of the millionaire Ilya Pigit, owner of the Ducat tobacco factory. Far from the open countryside landscapes of Italy or Spain, Konchalovsky turned to urban landscape in his paintings; even so, nature still prevails as his principal focus, as we see in the trees at the centre of the present composition and The Pink House on Bolshaya Sadovaya (fig.1).  The present work is an extremely unusual night view of the city as yet untouched by Stalin’s construction projects. The bright moonlight brings into sharp relief the juxtaposition of freezing snow and warm smoke.