Lot 21 : - Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin , 1861-1939 View from the Terrace, Gurzuf oil on canvas

Konstantin Korovin - 1861-1939

Auction Location: United Kingdom - 2008
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Title:

- Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin , 1861-1939 View from the Terrace, Gurzuf oil on canvas

Description:

signed in Cyrillic and dated 1912 l.l. oil on canvas

Dimensions:

90 by 145cm., 35 1/2 by 57in.

Notes:

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, SWITZERLAND
Korovin loved the early springs in the Crimea, the valleys full of almond and peach blossom, while the snow still lay on the distant mountain peaks. These were surroundings that naturally lent themselves to his impulsive, Impressionist style. As the art critic Avram Ephros wrote, "the extraordinarily refined, pictorially perfect, and often exquisitely airy small canvases [he] brought back from Spain, Italy, France, the Caucasus, and the Crimea (...) charmed the connoisseurs of the day. (....) the Korovin of these works is the first Russian Impressionist and our best plein-air painter, in love with the vibrating light-and-air medium which envelops the visual world..." (A.M. Ephros, Mastera raznyh epoh. Izbrannye istoriko-hudozhestvennye i kriticheskie stat'i, Moscow: Sovetskii hudozhnik, 1979, p. 217) It is with a true joie de vivre that the colours explode onto the canvas of the offered lot. The composition dances with light and in the torrent of pinks, purples and azure blues, there is a sense that life in all its vivacity and beauty is parading before our eyes. Korovin explained the sentiment at the core of his work as "the beauty and joy of life. The re-creation of this joy is the very essence of my picture, of every part of every piece of canvas I ever painted, of my ego..." Fedor Chaliapin was a regular visitor to Korovin's villa in Gurzuf. The two friends enjoyed sitting on the terrace affectionately known as the 'frying pan', so hot did it become in the intense Crimean sun. Korovin painted many of his Crimean landscapes from this location and refers to it in his memoirs:
"the terrace was very spacious and extended over the sea with a vine-covered trellis (...) At each end, tall oleanders grew in large planters; their pink hues against the bright blue sea truly brightened up the rocky coastline."
(the artist cited in I.Zilbershtein and I.Samkov, Konstantin Korovin vspominaet, Moscow: Izobrazitel'noe iskusstvo, 1990, p.235, 232)