NIKOLAI FECHIN | Portrait of a Young Girl

The artist
Thence by descent to his daughter Eya Fechin Branham
Private collection, USA
Christie's New York, Important American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, 29 November 2000, lot 95
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

New York, Hammer Galleries, Fechin, 21 March - 8 April 1961 
Canyon, Texas, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Enchanted: Taos Art from Texas Collections, 5 September - 15 November 1998, no.26

H.McCracken, Catalogue of Works by Nicolai Fechin in the Collection of his Daughter, Eya Fechin Branham, New York, 1961, no.3 listed and illustrated b/w in the listing of the works from Fechin's Russian period
G.Tuluzakova, Nikolai Fechin, St Petersburg: Zolotoi vek, 2010, pl.27 illustrated; p.473 listed

This work is in excellent condition. The canvas has an old glue lining. The stretcher is probably not original. The paint layer is clean and shows only a thin line of retouching at the top of the figure's arm in the lower center. There do not appear to be any other retouches. There seems to be an original artist's monogram in the upper left. There is a signature "N. Fechin" in the lower right, which fluoresces very strongly and does not look as if it were applied at the time that the work was painted. Nonetheless, the work is in beautiful condition and could be hung in its current state.
"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."

Galina Tuluzakova has identified the present portrait in a photograph of Nikolai Fechin at work in a rural studio setting (fig.1), allowing us to date it to his Russian period, most likely the early 1910s. The fact that this portrait was published in the 1961 Hammer Galleries catalogue of the Fechin family collection confirms that the artist would have brought the painting with him on emigrating to the United States and that it remained in his personal collection until his death. Fechin typically did not sign paintings which were not intended for sale. The signature on the present lot is an addition by the artist’s wife, Alexandra Nikolaevna Fechina, who would sign or stamp paintings from the family collection at the point of sale.