Esquisse d'un décor pour le drame 'La force des ténèbres'

Details

Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942)
Esquisse d'un décor pour le drame 'La force des ténèbres'
signed with Cyrillic initials and dated 'I. B/1926' (lower right); further signed, inscribed with title and numbered 'I. Bilibine/Paris/N 18' (on the reverse of the card)
pencil and watercolour on paper laid on card; unframed
14 x 25 in. (35.4 x 63.3 cm.)

Provenance

Acquired by the present owner in 2018.

Literature

Dílo [Work], Prague, 1927, vol. 22, illustrated between frontispiece and p. 1, no. 6.
G. Klimov, Ivan Bilibin po materialam sobraniia E. P. Klimova [Ivan Bilibin according to the materials in E. P. Klimov's collection], Moscow, 1999, illustrated p. 192, no. 291.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

Ivan Bilibin’s emigration to France in 1925 was met with financial constraints. He attempted to improve his situation with the help of friends from Czechoslovakia who facilitated the organisation of an exhibition of his works in Prague from late 1926 to early 1927. Critics in Prague greeted Bilibin's exhibition with high praise and almost an entire issue of the Czech art periodical Dílo [Work] was dedicated to the artist, in which the present lot is illustrated.

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