Vladimir Tatlin

Nina and Edmund Stevens, Moscow, 1960
Thence by descent

Exhibition catalogue The Nina Stevens Collection: Twentieth-Century Russian Painting, New York: Gallery of Modern Art, June-September 1967

Gallery of Modern Art, exhibition catalogue The Nina Stevens Collection: Twentieth-Century Russian Painting, New York, 1967, p. 32

The panel is sound. The surface has several spots of very minor craquelure and some minor scratches. In overall fine condition. Under UV pigment fluoresces along the left edge, denoting some minor restoration. Varnish prevents a conclusive analysis. Held in a white wood frame. Unexamined out of frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This recently rediscovered nude is an exciting new addition to scholarship on the artist. The inscription on the reverse is in the hand of the Russian sculptress, Sara Lebedeva, a close friend of Tatlin’s since his youth (fig.3).  A significant share of Tatlin’s estate was in Lebedeva’s safekeeping after his death, much of which she later donated to the State Central Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow, where it remains to this day. A number of works however, remained in her possession and these were dispersed among friends and collectors.

Between 1943-1944, Lebedeva worked on a sculpture of Tatlin seated.  According to contemporary accounts from this period, Tatlin moved and spoke softly, was always focused and had a melancholy manner of looking ahead, somewhere into space. It was a difficult and unsettled time for him, one of loneliness and suffering on account of his wounds, followed by the death of his only son at the front.

In the early 1940s, Tatlin was mainly known as a theatre artist and his experiments in painting were less publicised. But it was as a painter that he started his artistic career. He spent a short period at the Moscow School of Art, Architecture and Sculpture and the Penza Art School, and his close friendship with Larionov provided Tatlin with an excellent foundation in painting and draftsmanship. A keen observer of nature in its own right, his areas of study ranged from icon painting and ancient Russian frescoes, to Cubism and the elemental power of native craftsmanship. He synthesised all of these into his own distinctive language, setting his paintings apart from all the many ‘isms’ of his contemporaries. In 1914 Tatlin’s experiments with other materials drew him away from painting, and he only returned to the genre in the early 1930s after producing his models for The Monument to the Third International and Letatlin, though his main focus was still theatrical work.

In the summer of 1947 Nikolai Punin, art critic and author of the first monograph on Tatlin, visited the artist’s studio while he was in Moscow. Irina Punina, his daughter, recalls: ‘At last he has agreed to show the paintings on which he has been working the last few years. When he showed his work he described what an important role gesso played in his painting and spoke eloquently of the old icon painters. He used to paint in oil and tempera. I remember particularly his still lifes with green onions, flowers and landscapes. Some motifs were repeated, but everything was painted with great freshness and at the same time resolute and balanced in tone and set in a light-filled atmosphere. His paintings were a revelation to me. Nikolai Nikolaevich was delighted.  In Tatlin’s work he saw confirmation of his prediction, his unyielding belief in Tatlin’s taste and his unique artistic vision which could never be repeated. As he assessed the paintings at the end of the visit, Punin exclaimed, "We must hold an exhibition!", to which Tatlin replied "The time has not yet arrived – wait another twenty years".'

1947 was a productive period for Tatlin’s painting.The present work can be ranked among his best paintings from this period, Nude (fig.1, The State Russian Museum), Portrait of an Old Woman (The State Russian Museum) and Meat (The State Tretyakov Gallery) are among his best works. A young semi-nude girl stands with black material wrapped around her hips, her head cocked slightly backwards, her eyes half-closed as though in light sleep, all pierced with some kind of white mystical light and shrouded by waves of air.  The white material in her hand and the dish of water at her feet act as symbols of cleanliness and chastity, while the watch on her wrist draws attention to the grace and delicacy of the female figure.

The palette consists of lightly graded cool grey-blue tones in the background and warm ochre flecked with dots of scarlet-brown on the subject’s body. It is almost as though the brush has floated lightly over the paint surface, such is the virtuosity of his handling of paint, which just captures the reflected light on her skin and deftly outlines the figure over the glassy surface of the painting. The work is executed on panel. Tatlin always chose his materials with great sensitivity, and would keep dry furniture panels to use as a ground for his works. As was the practice among Old Masters, he would use gesso and several layers of ground which added an enamel smoothness and sheen to the paint surface, and it is this that allows him to manifest the ephemeral and natural in the very material embodiment displayed in the present work. The spiritual dimension of painting was engendered in Tatlin from his study of Dutch masters, and their ability to transform any everyday spectacle into a work of the highest art.

In his oil paintings, Tatlin displays the same degree of imagination and technical ingenuity as in his counter-reliefs. Since he was an innovator by nature, his output in terms of oil painting was understandably limited, which makes each new work that comes to light all the more exciting.

We would like to thank Tatiana Yermakova, art historian at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, for writing this note.