RUSSIAN PICTURES
02 JUNE 2015 | 10:30 AM BST
LONDON
42
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, FRANCE
Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich
BEFORE THE RAIN
Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 GBP
LOT SOLD. 497,000 GBP (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium)
Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich
1874 - 1947
BEFORE THE RAIN
titled Pered livnem / 7 [8] / L N 81 in the artist's hand and further numbered 112 / 82 on the reverse
oil on wood
50 by 80cm,19 1/2 by 31 1/2 in.
PROVENANCE
Collection of L.O.Levinsohn-Levin, 1918
Acquired in Paris by the present owner in the 1970s
EXHIBITED
Stockholm, Gummesons Konsthall., Rörich Separatutställning (Roerich Personal Exhibition), 1918, no.78, Före regnskuren
Copenhagen, Kunsthadel Henry Schou, Rörich Maleriudstilling (Roerich Exhibition of Paintings), 1919 no.78, Før Skybrud
London, The Goupil Gallery, Spells of Russia, 1920, no.112 Before a Shower
LITERATURE
Nicholas Roerich, List of Paintings 1917-1924 (manuscript), Nicholas Roerich Museum Archive, no.24 Pered livnem under works for 1918
Zhar Ptitsa, Berlin, 1921, no.4/5, p.24 illustrated b/w
F.Grant et al., Roerich, Himalaya, A Monograph, New York: Brentano, 1926, p.126 listed as Before the Shower (oil), L.O.Levinsohn-Levin
A.Yaremenko, Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich. His Life and Creations during the past forty years: 1889-1929, New York: Central Book Trading Co., 1931, p.35 listed as Before the Shower (oil), L.O. Levinsohn-Levin; illustrated pl.51 as Karelia (1918), Berlin
CATALOGUE NOTE
In the copy of the 1918 Stockholm catalogue held in the Roerich Museum archive in New York, there is a pencil entry by Roerich 2000 - Levin, referring to the price and buyer. It has never before been reproduced in colour and until recently had all but disappeared from view since the 1920 exhibition in London.
Between 1916 and 1918 Roerich and his family were based in Sortavala in Karelia, where for the most part the artist focused on panoramic landscapes, often using plywood as a support for his paintings, the rough surface of which adds texture to the colourful planes of lake and sky. ‘It is at that time’, writes Matochkin, ‘that the artist’s thirst for a profound understanding of the mysteries of a rocky realm became apparent, which later resulted in a pictorial hymn to mountain ranges and peaks. The airy texture of his early pastel canvases gave way to a dense and saturated oil medium with its palette of cold, contrasting tones. A new expressive principle – the painter’s religious conviction – was manifest in the uneven layers of dabs, in the rigid rhythm of cut forms, and in a blaze of colours’ (Y.Matochkin, Nicholas Roerich, 2008, p.207).
We are grateful to Gvido Trepša, Senior Researcher at the Nicholas Roerich Museum, New York, for providing additional cataloguing information.
Cover of the 1921 Christmas issue of Zhar-ptitsa
The present lot illustrated in the 1921 Christmas issue of Zhar-ptitsa
Karelia, sold at Sotheby’s London in November 2013
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