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LILACS

image size: 40 by 30cm., 15 3/4 by 11 3/4 in., possibly cut down from a larger work

signed in Cyrillic on reverse with later, partially effaced inscription in Cyrillic l.l.

oil on canvas

NOTE

Nikolai Sapunov drowned in a fishing accident in the Gulf of Finland aged just 32. Although his body of work is quite small, it nevertheless occupies an important place within the World of Art movement. Espousing its fundamentally theatrical approach to life, Sapunov turns reality into a spectacle by dressing his figures in traditional costume or displaying the flowers in his still lives in antique porcelain.

'Sapunov's palette is uniquely marked by the purely Russian concept of colour. His colours are honest, brilliant and eloquent, like Novgorod icons or popular embroidery [~] The language of his colours does not simply express the complexities of the soul, but, above all, joy and gaiety [~] as do our songs and dances' M.Alpatov, E.Gunst, Nikolai Nikolaevich Sapunov, Moscow, 1965, p.II)

The offered lot can be compared with the still-life of Hortensias (1910) which currently hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.