- 1
Varvara Fedorovna Stepanova
Description
- Varvara Fedorovna Stepanova
- Figure with Guitar
- signed in Cyrillic VarSt. and dated 19. l.r.; further signed in Cyrillic VarSt., signed in Cyrillic, dated 19. and numbered no.3 M. on the reverse
- oil on canvas
Provenance
Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne
Acquired from the above by the father of the present owners in 1978
Literature
Catalogue Note
As number three in the series, the present composition is among Stepanova's earliest works on this subject. A study for this piece was included in the 19th State Exhibition in 1920 according to the exhibition catalogue. A photograph taken in March 1920 shows the present work hanging among graphic works by Stepanova on the same ‘Figure’ theme on the walls of apartment no.25 of the building owned by the Kandinsky family, where Rodchenko and Stepanova were living from January to October 1920 (figs.3 and 4).
Figure with Guitar was among the works by Rodchenko and Stepanova that were given to Alexei Gan in 1920-1922, when Gan was writing the programme of the First Working Group of Constructivists at INKhUK in collaboration with Rodchenko and Stepanova.
We are grateful to Professor Alexander Lavrentiev of the Stroganov Moscow State University of Arts and Industry for providing this catalogue note.