Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky

Private Collection

Maya Polsky Gallery, Chicago (acquired in the 1990s)

Private Collection (acquired from the above)

Sotheby's, New York, Russian Art, 15 April 2008, lot 61

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

The present study of trees reflected in water is related to Konchalovsky's celebrated Abramtsevo landscapes dating from the early 1920s.

Savva Mamontov, the great patron of the arts, had acquired the Abramtsevo estate in 1870 and invited some of the most influential artists of the time to work there. During the following decades, this artists colony played an important role in the revival of Russian folk art and the development of a new Russian style.

Although the estate was nationalised after the Revolution, it continued to attract artists, including Konchalovsky, who spent the summers of 1920 and 1921 together with his family there. This period marks a significant shift in Konchalovsky's ouevre, as he moved away from portraiture and still lifes painted in his studio in Moscow, towards landscapes painted en plein air. His brushwork becomes more free and expressive, as is evident in the present study. Here, the artist also contrasts areas of thick impasto with more thinly painted areas.