Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov

Estimate

80,000 - 120,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Alexander Mikhailovich Gerasimov
Herd on the Collective Farm / Stalin and Voroshilov at the Kremlin
signed twice in Cyrillic and dated 1958 and 1959 l.r.
oil on canvas
123.5 by 187cm, 48 1/2 by 73 1/2 in.; extension: 161 by 25.5cm, 63 1/2 by 10in.
The underlying composition showing Stalin and Voroshilov dates from the 1930s-1940s.

Provenance

The family of the artist, until 1991
Galleria Marco Datrino, Torre Canavese

Exhibited

Torre Canavese, Galleria Marco Datrino, Arte Sovietica, dal regime alla perestrojka, 1930-1985, 1992
London, Leonid Shishkin Gallery, Stalin’s Velázquez, Aleksandr Gerasimov and the Alchemy of Power, 1 November - 5 December 2012
Moscow, The State Historical Museum, Aleksandr Gerasimov. K 135-letiyu khudozhnika, 10 February - 14 March 2016

Literature

Exhibition catalogue Arte Sovietica, dal regime alla perestrojka, 1930-1985, Galleria Marco Datrino, 1992, p.34, no.28 illustrated
Exhibition catalogue Stalin’s Velázquez, Aleksandr Gerasimov and the Alchemy of Power, London: Leonid Shishkin Gallery, 2012, illustrated
Aleksandr Gerasimov. K 135-letiyu khudozhnika, Moscow: The State Historical Museum, 2016, pp.124-125 illustrated

Catalogue Note

The present lot was formerly known and exhibited as Herd on the Collective Farm (1958-1959), until in 2013 a version of Gerasimov’s most iconic work Stalin and Voroshilov at the Kremlin (1938, State Tretyakov Gallery) was discovered underneath.

A 'standard-bearer of the Stalin cult', Gerasimov has been dubbed ‘Stalin’s Velázquez’ for his idealistic and canonical representations of the leader. However, after Stalin’s death in 1953 and the subsequent process of de-Stalinisation, the painter's visual panegyrics to the former leader were no longer fitting with the ideology of the day, to the extent that some of his works were rejected from his 50^th anniversary exhibition in 1956. It was then that Gerasimov turned to new themes, such as that of agriculture.

In this instance Gerasimov reused an older canvas with an unfinished composition then no longer in demand. He also changed the format of the canvas, cutting off a section on the left. By pure chance this fragment survived in the artist's archive and has now been reunited with the painting.