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Dimensions: 111 by 116cm., 43¾ by 45¾in.

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Provenance: The family of the artist

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Exhibited: Moscow, State Tretyakov Gallery, First Solo Exhibition of Petr Konchalovsky, 1922, Cat. No.118

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Literature: K.Frolova, Konchalovsky. Tvorcheskoe nasledie, Moscow, 1964, listed p.102 as Portrait of the artist Leonard Mikhailovich Buniatyan
Ex.Cat. P.P.Konchalovsky in Abramtsevo, 1977, No.52

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Notes: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, RUSSIA
This impressive, three quarter-length portrait of the artist Levon Mikhailovich Buniatyan (1899-1972), or Leonard Benatov as he became known in emigration, encapsulates the essence of Konchalovsky's post-revolutionary portraiture. The offered work was executed in Konchalovsky's studio, with the sitter shown against a wall of canvases. Benatov engages the viewer's gaze directly and intensely, his dynamic presence emphasised through the slight twist in his posture and the bold, flat brushstrokes with which Konchalovsky depicts him. He is presented as a young man in the prime of life, his bare upper torso suggesting a certain element of untamed primitive instinct, underscored by the fact that his figure is barely contained inside the close-cropped edges of the composition. Stylistically the offered work shares many similarities with the cycle of works completed at Abramtsevo, where this portrait was also executed. The series, consisting mainly of landscapes but often featuring the figures of nude bathers in the tradition of European Classicism, was painted from 1919-21 and marks a move away from the still life genre which dominated Konchalovsky's output until this time. In his monograph from 1923, the art historian P.Muratov argues that Konchalovsky's works from this period can be perceived as preparation for a new direction in his painting: all its elements are there even up his basic experiments with composition. Konchalovsky began to feel restricted by the 'psychological' portrait, which limited him to the representation of one person's inner world. Explaining his shift from the personal, to a more comprehensive approach, Konchalovsky wrote, "I always aim to find my subject's style and to open it out into something common to all mankind, because I value not an external likeness but rather the artistry of an image". With this aim in mind he was particularly inspired by Renaissance portraitists such as Rembrandt, "because of their ability to paint eternally arresting portraits of completely unknown people". Benatov and studied under Konchalovsky from 1918-1921 in the State Free Art Workshops, before leaving Russia to settle permanently in France a year later.