Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky

The family of the artist

Leningrad, Konchalovsky, 1929
Moscow, Vystavka kartin P.P.Konchalovskogo, 1930, no.73
Moscow, Leningrad, P.P.Konchalovsky. XXXV let tvorcheskoi deyatel'nosti, 1941
Moscow, Vystavka proizvedenii P.P.Konchalovskogo, 1947
Moscow, Vystavka proizvedenii P.P.Konchalovskogo, 1968

Exhibition catalogue Konchalovsky, Leningrad, 1929, p.30 listed as Patriarshie Prudy. Hokkei
V.Voinov, 'Vystavka P.P.Konchalovskogo', Krasnaya Panorama, no.14, 1929, p.14 illustrated
Exhibition catalogue Vystavka kartin P.P.Konchalovskogo, Moscow, 1930, listed no.73 as Patriarshie Prudy
V.Nikolsky, Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky, Moscow, 1936, p.111 illustrated and titled as Igra v Hokkei
Exhibition catalogue, P.P.Konchalovsky. 25 let tvorcheskoi deyatel'nosti, Moscow, 1941, p.17 listed as Hokkei
Exhibition catalogue Vystavka proizvedenii P.P.Konchalovskogo, 1947, p.14 listed as Hokkei. Patriarshie Prudy
Konchalovsky. Khudozhestvennoe nasledie, Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1964, p.119 listed as zhi 604; no.84 ill b/w
Exhibition catalogue Vystavka proizvedenii P.P.Konchalovskogo, Moscow, 1968, p.42 listed as Patriarshie Prudy. Hokkei

The canvas has been strip lined. There is a layer of surface dirt. There is craquelure in places. There are frame abrasions with some associated paint loss. There is a small area of paint loss in the upper left corner. Inspection under UV light reveals retouching along the edges, to the areas just below the tree in the left foreground, to the tree itself and some minor scattered retouching throughout. Held in a strip frame and a painted wooden frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Ice Hockey on Patriarch's Ponds addresses one of Konchalovsky’s favourite themes of the late 1920s and 1930s – the winter views of Moscow. Executed in the winter of 1929 at the Patriarch's Ponds, the present lot is the first painting in this series and it was chosen to illustrate the 1929 review of Konchalovsky's solo show in Krasnaya Panorama (fig.2). It is known that the painting was widely exhibited in the following decades and remained in the artist's collection until his death.

Konchalovsky considered working on this very painting as a pivotal experience of this period. 'That year the ice rink was not taken care of’, the artist recalls, ‘A large field of snow separated it from the boulevard and the nearby buildings. There was something beautiful about it; as the buildings stretched off somewhere into the distance, the horizon widened to expose a mirror of ice surrounded by a wide frame of snow. I captured it in a dynamic way; on a slight diagonal to emphasise the agile movements of the hockey players. Intentionally avoiding too much detail, I outlined the hideous fence that enclosed the ponds and painted only two trees out of the dozen that were there. Here I applied the paint thinly, the whole time I was afraid that any excess of paint would ruin the impression of freshness’ (quoted in V.Nikolsky, P.P.Konchalovsky, 1936, p.113).

The backdrop to the scene is the renowned Patriarch's Ponds, renamed Pioneer Ponds following the Revolution. It is more famously known to Western audience as the setting for the opening of Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita. While writing his masterpiece Bulgakov was lodgings in the same house as Konchalovsky on Bolshaya Sadovaya street, walking distance from the ponds. The house was frequented by Lentulov amongst others, who lived nearby and painted views of Patriarch's ponds from his window (fig.3).