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Lot Essay
An iconic image from the Croisiere Noire expedition, Aoua, Femme Banda, is an extraordinary work of artistic reportage. Widely exhibited and illustrated in numerous publications, the painting is testimony to Iacovleff's passionate intuition and consummate skill, which invest his work with an invisible emotional background, elevating his portraiture above factual ethnographic documentation.
The inter-war period witnessed the first flights between France and Africa which fuelled the public's fascination with the mysterious continent. The lure of the exotic provided André Citroën, who founded the eponymous automobile company in 1919, with the opportunity to promote his vehicles to a rapt international audience through a series of transcontinental car journeys. From 28 October 1924 to 26 June 1925, the Croisièe Noire traversed the African continent from North to South, travelling from Colomb-Bchar to Cape Town by means of eight half-track vehicles. Launched by Citroën in 1922, the off-road vehicles utilised the ingenious Kégresse rubber track system that was capable of tackling any terrain. The significance of these expeditions should not be underestimated; in rendering such remote places accessible, the Croisières were seen by many as a sign of industrial progress and captured the imagination of the world.
Led by Georges-Marie Haardt with Louis Audouin-Dubreuil as his deputy, Citroën's Croisiére Noire team comprised 17 members, including Léon Poirier, the film director, and Alexandre Iacovleff, who were tasked with documenting the cultural adventure. This brief suited Iacovleff's personality and talent; naturally curious, he instinctively sought to record all that he saw and was able to work swiftly under testing conditions. Iacovleff's charisma was also a useful diplomatic tool; his charm often diffused confrontations between the indigenous population and the adventurers, and portraits in pastel by the 'Russian magician' naturally encouraged social interaction and sparked friendship.
The expedition reached Yalinga, where Iacovleff conceived Aoua, Femme Banda, in January 1925. The Banda inhabited the region of Oubangui-Chari, a French territory in central Africa which later became the Central African Republic on August 13, 1960. A stylised portrait, conveying Iacovleff's passion for construction and precise definition, Aoua, Femme Banda combines precise ethnographic detail with a sensitivity and humanity typical of the artist.
Aoua looks beyond, her noble silhouette in relief against the azure sky. The detailed representation of the pattern of scarification on her face is evidence of Iacovleff's close observation; so too is another sketch of a full-body pattern which occupies the same sheet as a pastel study for the present portrait. Iacovleff's use of flattened perspective for the village background and the contrast provided by the heavy cross-hatched brushstrokes of the huts with the smooth contours of the face, effectively project Aoua forward, out of her environment. The tight composition often favoured by Iacovleff lends an abstract quality to the portrait; the absence of personalising expression, the averted gaze, all allows the subject to be displayed in, yet removed from her surroundings.
The portrait also reveals Iacovleff's influences; the composition, technique and expression are reminiscent of those used by the Old Masters, in particular those from Quattrocento Florence. One particular work by Piero di Cosimo (c. 1462-1521) (fig. 1), later copied by Konstantin Somov, highlights this connection clearly. Indeed, before leaving Russia, Iacovleff had founded The Painting Workshop of St Luke with his close friend and peer, Vasilii Shukhaev (for a portrait of Iacovleff by Shukhaev see lot 99). Dedicated to the revival of the techniques and ideals of the Old Masters, the workshop played an important role in the development of Russian Neo-classicism. Both artists had studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg and had been particularly influenced by Dmitry Kardovskii, who cultivated the art of fine draftsmanship and encouraged his students to emulate the palette used by the Old Masters. In Aoua, Femme Banda, Iacovleff uses this artistic heritage to lend his subjects status and symbolic importance.
Upon his return to Paris in 1926, Iacovleff exhibited his work to great acclaim at the Galerie Charpentier and in the Louvre. Having overcome the enormous challenges of his working environment; from noting impressions while on the move, to enduring the midday sun to work on his sketches while his companions slept; Iacovleff returned with a spoil of almost 400 impressive canvasses and exquisite drawings.
Recognised as one of the defining and enduring images of the Croisière Noire, Aoua, Femme Banda was originally in the personal collection of the leader of the expedition, Georges-Marie Haardt, and has not appeared at auction for over forty years. More recently, Iacovleff's work has again gained recognition on the international stage; his portraiture being particularly appreciated by collectors and art historians alike. Never reduced to caricature, Iacovleff's portraits share a timeless humanity, perhaps best described by his close friend and patron, Martin Birbaum:
The sitters are never guilty of the sin of posturing, and every distinctive facet of their singular personalities is vigorously expressed. There is a logical coherence about them. Not commonplace cleverness but masterly assurance and infallible precision characterise them. Some contemporary artists, who must have felt humiliated and discouraged by such bewildering uncanny ability, referred to Yacovleff rather disdainfully as a man who possessed merely a photographic eye, but no camera ever seized a character so profoundly and with such communicative power. (M. Birbaum, Jacovleff and other artists, New York, 1946, p. 10)
The inter-war period witnessed the first flights between France and Africa which fuelled the public's fascination with the mysterious continent. The lure of the exotic provided André Citroën, who founded the eponymous automobile company in 1919, with the opportunity to promote his vehicles to a rapt international audience through a series of transcontinental car journeys. From 28 October 1924 to 26 June 1925, the Croisièe Noire traversed the African continent from North to South, travelling from Colomb-Bchar to Cape Town by means of eight half-track vehicles. Launched by Citroën in 1922, the off-road vehicles utilised the ingenious Kégresse rubber track system that was capable of tackling any terrain. The significance of these expeditions should not be underestimated; in rendering such remote places accessible, the Croisières were seen by many as a sign of industrial progress and captured the imagination of the world.
Led by Georges-Marie Haardt with Louis Audouin-Dubreuil as his deputy, Citroën's Croisiére Noire team comprised 17 members, including Léon Poirier, the film director, and Alexandre Iacovleff, who were tasked with documenting the cultural adventure. This brief suited Iacovleff's personality and talent; naturally curious, he instinctively sought to record all that he saw and was able to work swiftly under testing conditions. Iacovleff's charisma was also a useful diplomatic tool; his charm often diffused confrontations between the indigenous population and the adventurers, and portraits in pastel by the 'Russian magician' naturally encouraged social interaction and sparked friendship.
The expedition reached Yalinga, where Iacovleff conceived Aoua, Femme Banda, in January 1925. The Banda inhabited the region of Oubangui-Chari, a French territory in central Africa which later became the Central African Republic on August 13, 1960. A stylised portrait, conveying Iacovleff's passion for construction and precise definition, Aoua, Femme Banda combines precise ethnographic detail with a sensitivity and humanity typical of the artist.
Aoua looks beyond, her noble silhouette in relief against the azure sky. The detailed representation of the pattern of scarification on her face is evidence of Iacovleff's close observation; so too is another sketch of a full-body pattern which occupies the same sheet as a pastel study for the present portrait. Iacovleff's use of flattened perspective for the village background and the contrast provided by the heavy cross-hatched brushstrokes of the huts with the smooth contours of the face, effectively project Aoua forward, out of her environment. The tight composition often favoured by Iacovleff lends an abstract quality to the portrait; the absence of personalising expression, the averted gaze, all allows the subject to be displayed in, yet removed from her surroundings.
The portrait also reveals Iacovleff's influences; the composition, technique and expression are reminiscent of those used by the Old Masters, in particular those from Quattrocento Florence. One particular work by Piero di Cosimo (c. 1462-1521) (fig. 1), later copied by Konstantin Somov, highlights this connection clearly. Indeed, before leaving Russia, Iacovleff had founded The Painting Workshop of St Luke with his close friend and peer, Vasilii Shukhaev (for a portrait of Iacovleff by Shukhaev see lot 99). Dedicated to the revival of the techniques and ideals of the Old Masters, the workshop played an important role in the development of Russian Neo-classicism. Both artists had studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg and had been particularly influenced by Dmitry Kardovskii, who cultivated the art of fine draftsmanship and encouraged his students to emulate the palette used by the Old Masters. In Aoua, Femme Banda, Iacovleff uses this artistic heritage to lend his subjects status and symbolic importance.
Upon his return to Paris in 1926, Iacovleff exhibited his work to great acclaim at the Galerie Charpentier and in the Louvre. Having overcome the enormous challenges of his working environment; from noting impressions while on the move, to enduring the midday sun to work on his sketches while his companions slept; Iacovleff returned with a spoil of almost 400 impressive canvasses and exquisite drawings.
Recognised as one of the defining and enduring images of the Croisière Noire, Aoua, Femme Banda was originally in the personal collection of the leader of the expedition, Georges-Marie Haardt, and has not appeared at auction for over forty years. More recently, Iacovleff's work has again gained recognition on the international stage; his portraiture being particularly appreciated by collectors and art historians alike. Never reduced to caricature, Iacovleff's portraits share a timeless humanity, perhaps best described by his close friend and patron, Martin Birbaum:
The sitters are never guilty of the sin of posturing, and every distinctive facet of their singular personalities is vigorously expressed. There is a logical coherence about them. Not commonplace cleverness but masterly assurance and infallible precision characterise them. Some contemporary artists, who must have felt humiliated and discouraged by such bewildering uncanny ability, referred to Yacovleff rather disdainfully as a man who possessed merely a photographic eye, but no camera ever seized a character so profoundly and with such communicative power. (M. Birbaum, Jacovleff and other artists, New York, 1946, p. 10)