Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev

Structural Condition The canvas has been lined and is securely attached to a keyed wooden stretcher. This is providing an even structural support. Paint Surface The paint surface has a relatively even varnish layer. There are some very fine lines of craquelure most notably in the upper part of the trees, in the upper left of the sky and some fine horizontal lines in the lower left of the composition. These appear stable at present and are not visually distracting. There are some further areas of drying craquelure with some associated very small paint losses, most notably within the yellow pigments below the upper edge and in the lower part of the composition and within the dark green and blue pigments in the centre and the lower right of the composition. These appear stable at present. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows some small scattered retouchings most notably within the trees in the centre and upper part of the composition and an area of retouching just in from the centre of the right edge. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good condition.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Grigoriev's series of Haute-Savoie landscapes were painted in 1927, soon after he purchased his small estate in Provence near Cagnes-sur-Mer from where he began to explore different regions of his beloved France. The present work may well have been among the Haute-Savoie landscapes which are listed in a number of his 1928 exhibitions, for example at his solo show at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune in Paris in May and the exhibition of contemporary Russian Art at the Ruskin Gallery in Birmingham in June and July. Grigoriev took some of his Haute-Savoie landscapes to Chile in July 1928, three of which were included in his large solo exhibition in Santiago; a view which is closely comparable to the present lot was shown at Marie Sterner Galleries in New York in 1933.

Grigoriev had gained fame in Europe and America during the 1920s in part for the very Russian flavour of his art and his strong command of line, which made for highly expressionist work. But as he explained to the critic Misheev, 1927-1928 marked a turning point in his career both in terms of subject and medium: 'I am now entering the kingdom of pure painting. I am bent on capturing that complete sense of form which is the prerequisite of all real art and where narrow definitions of nationality really don't have any relevance at all...' (see Boris Grigoriev, Perezvony, Riga, 1929, no.42).

These unpretentious landscapes are characterised by thick impasto, a startlingly bright but harmonised palette and flexible, imaginative brushwork, which results in superbly expressive depictions of nature in its simplest forms.

We are grateful to Tamara Galeeva for providing this catalogue note.