Pavel Tchelitchew (Russian, 1898-1957)
This lot is offered without reserve. PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, NANTUCKET
Pavel Tchelitchew (Russian, 1898-1957)

Portrait of George Platt Lynes

Details
Pavel Tchelitchew (Russian, 1898-1957)
Portrait of George Platt Lynes
signed, dated and inscribed 'P. Tchelitchew 1937 N.Y.' (lower right) and inscribed 'To dear Monroe/ with best love/ Pavlik/ june. Paris 1955' (lower left)
ink and wash on paper
18 x 14½ in. (45.7 x 36.8 cm.)
Executed in 1937.
Provenance
The Collection of Monroe Wheeler.
Exhibited
New York, Gallery of Modern Art, Pavel Tchelitchew, 20 March-19 April 1964, cat. no. 181.
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.

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Lot Essay

We are grateful to Mr. Erik La Prade for his assistance in cataloguing this work.

Pavel Tchelitchew was a master draftsman and drew numerous portraits of patrons and friends throughout his lifetime. This drawing of George Platt Lynes is a fine example of Tchelitchew’s portraiture. During the mid-to-late1920s, Tchelitchew was living in Paris, drawing society portraits to earn a living. He had a number of patrons, among them, Gertrude Stein. Lynes and Tchelitchew met around 1926, when Gertrude Stein sent Lynes to visit his studio. Subsequently, it was Tchelitchew who introduced Lynes to Glenway Wescott and Monroe Wheeler, according to Tchelitchew’s biographer, Parker Tyler.

This drawing or study was made in 1937, the same year Tchelitchew was commissioned to paint a large, oil on canvas portrait of Lynes, portraying him in an allegorical role as a photographer.

The fact that Tchelitchew inscribed this drawing to Monroe Wheeler in Paris, June 1955, adds a poignancy to the work since Lynes would die from cancer in December 1955.

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