Robert Rafaelovich Falk

Acquired directly from the artist by Yedidya Admon (Gorokhov; 1894-1982)
Thence by descent to the grandson of the above
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

The canvas has been strip-lined and is slightly uneven in two places. There are a few lines of craquelure. Inspection under UV light reveals minor retouching to the frame abrasions to the edges. There are remains of an older painting by the artist on the reverse of the canvas. Held in a carved wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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The reverse bears a painting Landscape with Red Houses thought to date from circa 1910.

'All I paint are the streets of Paris,' Robert Falk would write more than once in his letters to his mother from France, and the boulevards of the French capital were indeed among his favourite subjects during the 1930s. The present work depicts the famous Porte Saint-Martin located on the boulevard of the same name. In the distance, one can see another triumphal arch, the Porte Saint-Denis. A similar composition executed in gouache is thought to be a study for the present work.

Falk left Russia in 1928 with the authorisation of the Soviet authorities, and would remain in France until his return to the Soviet Union in 1937. During this period, the artist turned to a more impressionistic manner of painting, creating views of the bustling streets of Paris that are full of air and light. Paintings like Porte Saint-Martin also recall the early works of Konstantin Korovin, who had been one of Falk's teachers at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture.

The painting was acquired by the Israeli composer Yedidya Admom (Gorokhov), who had known Falk personally while living in Paris in the 1930s. His collection comprised around twenty paintings by the artist. The reverse of the canvas shows a composition with a red house, which is thought to date from circa 1910. Falk is known to have reused older canvases on more than one occasion.

We would like to thank Yulia Didenko for providing additional cataloging information. The painting will be included in her forthcoming supplement to the artist's catalogue raisonné.