Martiros Sarian

A gift from the artist to Hovhannes Zardaryan in 1948
Thence by descent to the present owner

Yerevan, State Picture Gallery of Armenia, Vystavka proizvedenii Narodnogo khudozhnika SSSR i laureata leninskoi premii Martirosa Sariana, 1961,
Yerevan and Moscow, Vystavka proizvedenii Narodnogo khudozhnika SSSR M.S. Sariana, 1965

R.Drampian, Sarian, Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1964, p.100 listed under works from 1912 and titled Tsvetushchie yabloni. Sambek
L.Mirzoian and Sh.Khachatarian, M.Sarian: Tsvety, Moscow: Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1987, p.65, pl.24 illustrated; p.261, no.24 listed
A.Kamensky, Martiros Saryan: Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings, Book Illustrations, Theatrical Design, Connecticut: Sphinx Press; Leningrad: Aurora, 1988, no.112, p.287  listed and illustrated in b/w

The canvas is unstretched and the edges have been unevenly cut. There are paint losses scattered throughout, most notably in the sky above the tree on the left, in the sky between the trees and the corners. The losses above the left tree appear unstable and are flaking slightly. There are creases throughout with some associated paint loss, particularly in the area to the right of the tree on the right hand side. Craquleure is visible in places, most notably the sky, in the centre it is lifting slightly. There is a light layer of surface dirt. Inspection under UV light reveals crude inpainting to two of the creases in the greenery on the far right but no further signs of retouching. Held behind glass in a gold-coloured frame.
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Sarian spent the end of 1911 and most of 1912 travelling around Egypt. Try as he might, he could not bring himself to love the Egyptian landscape. Even by the Nile, the endless sands and lack of clear horizon disturbed him and he found the land curiously inert. By the time Sarian came to paint the present lot in 1912 it would seem that the dust, arid heat and lack of vegetation had become too much and filled with a longing for freshness and vitality, he turned to the life-affirming subject of apple trees in full bloom by the fertile banks of the river Sambek, the land of his birth. For in the artist’s own words ‘What is more beautiful than flowers, nature’s adornment, be they in the mountains, the canyons or the fields?’