Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky

Acquired by the previous owner in northern Italy in the 1970s

Moscow, State Historical Museum, Vystavka kartin, organizovannaya Rossiiskim Obshchestvom Krasnogo Kresta, 1924, no.36
Venice, XIV Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte di Venezia, 1924 

Exhibition catalogue Vystavka kartin, organizovannaya Rossiiskim Obshchestvom Krasnogo Kresta, Moscow, 1924, no.36 listed
B.Ternovetz, 'La Section Russe à l'Exposition International de Venise', La Renaissance de L'Art, no.1, January 1924, the present work is visible in a photograph taken in the Soviet Pavilion
V.Nikolsky, Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky, Moscow: Vsekokhudozhnik, 1936, p.11 listed under works from 1923
Konchalovsky. Khudozhestvennoe nasledie, Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1964, p.107 listed as zhi 374
M.Neiman, Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky, Moscow, 1967, p.300 listed under works from 1923

Structural Condition The canvas is unlined and is attached to a keyed wooden stretcher. The canvas is slack and requires retensioning. Paint Surface The paint surface has an uneven and discoloured varnish layer and would benefit from cleaning. There are some very fine lines of craquelure most notably within the pale pigments in the upper left of the sky. These appear stable and appear to be attributable to the natural drying processes of the artist's materials. There are some very minor scattered accretions on the paint surface. The canvas appears to have been unfolded and stretched over a larger support enabling the artist to make compositional changes. These areas of extension are approximately 7 cm in width running down the right side and 1.5 cm in width running down the left side with associated small pin holes corresponding to a previous tacking edge. There are some minor localised distortions just in from the centre of the right edge and in the upper right corner corresponding to where the canvas was previously stretched over a smaller support. There are some further intermittent pin holes in the canvas, most notably in the lower left, the upper left, the lower right, just below the centre of the upper edge and just in from the centre of the right edge. There are a few small losses on the right side of the composition corresponding to where the canvas has been extended. There is a small loss to the right of the reflection of the central trees in the lower part of the composition and some very small losses within the crouching figure in the lower left of the composition. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a very discoloured varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light also shows scattered areas of fluorescence which appear to be due to the natural degradation of the varnish layers. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good condition and would benefit cleaning, restoration and revarnishing including the infilling and retouching of any paint losses.
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Konchalovsky first showed the present work at the 1924 exhibition organised by the Russian Society of the Red Cross, which opened on 9 March at the Historical Museum in Moscow. Anatoly Lunacharsky, People’s Commissar for Education, noted that Konchalovsky’s works surpassed all other exhibits, praising in particular his landscapes with willows. ‘Never before did Konchalovsky present himself as such a profound, exuberant, and proficient master of painting’. (A.Lunacharsky, 'Vystavka kartin, organizovannaya Krasnim Krestom', Izvestia, no.71, 27 March 1924).

The same year Konchalovsky was invited to participate in the Venice Biennale. According to a detailed list kept in the Biennale archive, the artist sent 60 paintings in two crates to Venice, of which only 13 works were exhibited including the present lot. Konchalovsky showed more works than any other artist at the Soviet Pavilion and his paintings were received with enthusiasm by critics and collectors alike. The National Gallery in Venice acquired his 1923 family portrait for 3,530 lire, while the important Milanese collector Vittorio Lodigiani bought two works, including a painting titled Derevya [Trees] (see Vivian Endicott Barnett, 'The Russian Presence in the 1924 Venice Biennale' in The Great Utopia, New York, 1992, p.470). The Milanese provenance of the present lot suggests that it could have been one of the two paintings acquired by Lodigiani. The Italianised signature may well have been a nod to his prospective audience at the Biennale.