Russian Pictures
Russian Pictures
Property from a Private Collection, Moscow
Auction Closed
November 26, 01:34 PM GMT
Estimate
350,000 - 550,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
NIKOLAI FECHIN
1881-1955
RECLINING NUDE
oil on canvas
27 by 67.5cm, 10½ by 26½in.
The family of Pavel Alexandrovich Radimov
While primarily known as a portrait painter, Nikolai Fechin turned to the subject of the nude frequently both in Russia and later in the United States. In the 1910s, while teaching at the Kazan Art School, Fechin produced a large number of exquisite drawings of both male and female nudes, demonstrating his outstanding draughtsmanship and understanding of anatomy. The artist developed the genre further in his oil paintings, the majority of which are now in major Russian museums such as the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow and the State Fine Arts Museum of the Republic of Tatarstan in Kazan.
In his nudes of the period, the artist was experimenting with a variety of complex poses, focusing on the way the human body moves. In the present work, the female figure takes centre stage – it is tightly framed by the unusually narrow format of the canvas, and the model’s head, only partially within the picture, is turned away from the viewer. Typically for Fechin, the polished treatment of the body contrasts with the dynamic brushwork of the background, further drawing attention to the model. While the work itself is undated, the model appears to be the same as in a drawing dated 1919 (illustrated in G.Tuluzakova, Nicolai Fechin, 2014, p.105).
Reclining Nude previously belonged to the family of the artist Pavel Alexandrovich Radimov (1881-1955), a student of Fechin’s in Kazan. When Fechin left Russia for the United States in 1923, he left a number of paintings with Radimov for safekeeping. The appearance of the work at auction presents a rare chance for collectors to acquire a nude from Fechin’s Russian period.