Lot Essay
According to John Graham, in 1915 he joined the Circassian Regiment of the Russian Empire with the rank of Cornet, where he received the Cross of St. George while fighting with the Romanians in World War I. As Eleanor Green says,
Other than his evocation of his mother, the soldier pictures were Graham's first visual remembrances of time past. The images and title were repeated many times over. The earliest show one or more anonymous, naturalistic soldiers, rather small in relation to the size of the canvas, poised with the guns at the ready as they await the enemy. As the series progresses, the scale of the figures soon increases and the bust-length, stylized portraits emerge. He worked most frequently from three photographs-an amusingly posed group picture of his regiment celebrating Christmas or New Year's in about 1915, a picture of himself as a cocksure eighteen year old, and a book illustration showing Czar Nicholas as a young man without a beard. The uniforms and insignia were painted from Graham's collection of military objets d'art, which included early nineteenth-century Russian regimental headgear; from his cache of postcards and magazine illustrations; or even from his collection of lead soldiers (E. Green, exh. cat., John Graham: Artist and Avatar, State University of New York at Purchase, Neuberger Museum, 1987, p. 59-60).
Other than his evocation of his mother, the soldier pictures were Graham's first visual remembrances of time past. The images and title were repeated many times over. The earliest show one or more anonymous, naturalistic soldiers, rather small in relation to the size of the canvas, poised with the guns at the ready as they await the enemy. As the series progresses, the scale of the figures soon increases and the bust-length, stylized portraits emerge. He worked most frequently from three photographs-an amusingly posed group picture of his regiment celebrating Christmas or New Year's in about 1915, a picture of himself as a cocksure eighteen year old, and a book illustration showing Czar Nicholas as a young man without a beard. The uniforms and insignia were painted from Graham's collection of military objets d'art, which included early nineteenth-century Russian regimental headgear; from his cache of postcards and magazine illustrations; or even from his collection of lead soldiers (E. Green, exh. cat., John Graham: Artist and Avatar, State University of New York at Purchase, Neuberger Museum, 1987, p. 59-60).