Lot Essay
After studying for two years at the Stieglitz School of Technical drawing in St. Petersburg, Petrov-Vodkin entered the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in 1897. There, the system of instruction was more progressive than at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. The artistic debates in Moscow were also much more animated than in the then Russian capital. The young artists' disillusionment with the naturalistic Itinerant movement sought expression in their attempts to evolve new forms of expressing their vision of the world.
After early experimentation with Symbolism, influenced by Puvis de Chavannes, Maurice Denis and Ferdinand Hodler, Petrov-Vodkin's fundamentally Russian sensibility acquired a truly Russian means of artistic expression.
In 1910, he was invited to join the World of Art (Mir Iskusstva) Society and it was with this group that he started to exhibit his work. The paintings he produced at this period were based on a dynamic composition coupled with dramatic colour contrasts. The first of these was 'Boys' or 'Boys playing' (1911, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). The second was 'The Bathing of the red Horse' (1912), an archetypally Russian painting of the 1910s, and one which occupies a special position in the artist's oeuvre. The purity and simplicity of line which characterise this painting were more expressive than any direct imitation of nature could have been. The predominant colour - a deep, bright red - is strongly associated with the fabulous steeds of the old Russian sagas and ballads. In Russian folklore, it represents all that is beautiful, kind and glorious. With this, and later pictures, Petrov-Vodkin evolved what he termed the 'science of seeing', a painting system which incorporated a totally original means of transforming spatial concepts onto a canvas which used the vivid red of the 'Bathing of the red Horse' and the blue which is used in this 'Portrait of a Woman'.
The present painting from 1925 was executed during Petrov-Vodkin's stay in France in the small village of Puy on the Britanny coast near Dieppe. The upper part of the painting re-creates the typical landscape of northern France. The composition, with its 'inclined perspective' which gives the viewer a bird's eye view of the scene, encompassing all perspectives, is a characteristic feature of the artist's work. The figures seem to curve and fan outwards.
By referring to other works of this period, 'A sleeping Child ' (1924, Ashkabad Museum) and 'Morning in the Nursery' (1924-5, private collection), we can deduce that the subject of this work is probably the artist's wife.
After early experimentation with Symbolism, influenced by Puvis de Chavannes, Maurice Denis and Ferdinand Hodler, Petrov-Vodkin's fundamentally Russian sensibility acquired a truly Russian means of artistic expression.
In 1910, he was invited to join the World of Art (Mir Iskusstva) Society and it was with this group that he started to exhibit his work. The paintings he produced at this period were based on a dynamic composition coupled with dramatic colour contrasts. The first of these was 'Boys' or 'Boys playing' (1911, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg). The second was 'The Bathing of the red Horse' (1912), an archetypally Russian painting of the 1910s, and one which occupies a special position in the artist's oeuvre. The purity and simplicity of line which characterise this painting were more expressive than any direct imitation of nature could have been. The predominant colour - a deep, bright red - is strongly associated with the fabulous steeds of the old Russian sagas and ballads. In Russian folklore, it represents all that is beautiful, kind and glorious. With this, and later pictures, Petrov-Vodkin evolved what he termed the 'science of seeing', a painting system which incorporated a totally original means of transforming spatial concepts onto a canvas which used the vivid red of the 'Bathing of the red Horse' and the blue which is used in this 'Portrait of a Woman'.
The present painting from 1925 was executed during Petrov-Vodkin's stay in France in the small village of Puy on the Britanny coast near Dieppe. The upper part of the painting re-creates the typical landscape of northern France. The composition, with its 'inclined perspective' which gives the viewer a bird's eye view of the scene, encompassing all perspectives, is a characteristic feature of the artist's work. The figures seem to curve and fan outwards.
By referring to other works of this period, 'A sleeping Child ' (1924, Ashkabad Museum) and 'Morning in the Nursery' (1924-5, private collection), we can deduce that the subject of this work is probably the artist's wife.