Ilya Ivanovich Mashkov

A gift from M.Mashkova to L.Oginska in 1973
Acquired from the above by the mother of the present owner in 1979

I.Bolotina, Ilya Mashkov, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1977, p.348, no.500 illustrated in b/w

Original canvas. There is a layer of surface dirt and small flecks of dirt to the pink rose. There is a small hole with some associated paint loss to the right of the small yellow flower at the top the composition. There is an area of paint loss to the red carnation above the pink rose and the red flower to the left of this. There are faint stretcher bar marks along all edges, as well as frame abrasions. There are pin holes in each corner. Inspection under UV does not reveal any obvious signs of restoration. Unframed.
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This delicate still life belongs to Mashkov’s so-called ‘Abramtsevo series’ of small-scale, intimate works he painted towards the end of the 1930s. ‘These are not literal fragments of everyday life’ notes Bolotina in the monograph, ‘…but lightly modernised variations on the classical theme of a still life. They fall into the tradition of ‘museum art’ alongside his works from the 1920s… Mashkov was master of the still life, a recognised genius of this genre’ (quoted in I.Bolotina, Ilya Mashkov, 1977, pp.103-104). A revival of interest in Mashkov’s work from the 1920s and 1930s took place during his 1956 Moscow exhibition in which these later canvases were centre stage, despite the inclusion of a considerable number of his early works, and the show was accompanied by a small volume on his work by Perelman reassessing the artist's late period. The present work is an exceptionally rare, published and beautiful example of a period of Mashkov’s oeuvre more commonly represented in Russian museums.