Ivan Pavlovich Pokhitonov

Collection of Professor Emile Witmeur, Liège
Private collection, Belgium
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Liège, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Parc de La Boverie, Le visage de Liège. Centenaire de la Société Royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège. 1933, 23 September - 23 October 1933, no.386, Neige à Trou-Louette (Bressoux)
Liège, 3 Rue Sœurs-de-Hasque, Salon inaugural du nouveau local du Cercle des Beaux-Arts de Liège, 10 - 27 December 1938, no.38, Neige à Bressoux
Liège, Musée d’Art Wallon, Parc de la Boverie, Salon 1952. Société Royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège. Collections particulières liégeoises et verviétoises,  4 October – 11 November 1952, no.661, Trou-Louette.1906

The edges of the sheet are uneven and it has discoloured slightly in line with age. It has been laid on Japanese paper and there is a repaired diagonal tear of a few centimetres below the centre of the left edge. Vertical creasing is visible in the sheet in the area of sky in the upper right of the composition. There are a few spots of dirt in places. Held behind glass in an attractive gilt frame with plaster mouldings. Unexamined out of frame.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Finished pastels by Pokhitonov are extremely rare. The present work was executed soon after his return from Russia where he had spent five years (1901-1906), leaving for the relative safety of Western Europe after the collapse of the 1905 Revolution. It was acquired by Professor Emile Witmeur, and it is hard to think that he didn’t have this work in mind when he described the important role of winter scenes and the ‘secret language’ of snow in his friend’s work.

‘Saint Francis of Assisi preached to birds, Pokitonow talked to snow. Russian winters gave him a beneficial vision of snow, which, far from being a shroud, appeared to be a warm coat protecting life, an ornament of celebration that transformed commonplace objects giving them a charm of innocence and freshness. Pokitonow always greeted snow with joy as if it were an old and faithful friend. He contemplated and painted it with tenderness as it lay, full of hesitation, on twisted trunks and the rugged branches of bare trees, or covering the ermine fringes of shrubs and hedges alongside the roads, while it looked deformed and torn in the ruts of the roads, or when it, as a sky messenger, made the dark roofs of ugly agglomerations look beautiful. Thus a banal, sad image of winter became moving because of Pokitonow's force of sympathy that revived the soul of things’ ('Un Peintre russe, chantre de la Wallonie', La Vie Wallonne, March 1924).

The present lot will be included in the third volume of the catalogue raisonné currently being prepared by Olivier Bertrand.