Grigory Petrovitch Svetlitsky (1872-1947), Man resting in an autumn landscape

拍品描述

Grigory Petrovitch Svetlitsky (1872-1947) Man resting in an autumn landscape Oil on canvas laid to canvas Signed in Cyrillic lower left 33 3/8 x 51 1/4 in. The Collection of Sybil Rosen and Robert Fisher, from the above, 1978 Other Notes: Grigory Petrovitch Svetlitsky was a Ukrainian painter, graphic artist, musician, and composer whose career spanned the late Russian Empire and the Soviet period. Svetlitsky was born in Kyiv in September 1872, the twelfth child of a French-horn player employed by the Kyiv Opera. Music and drawing were both important to the artist from childhood. Svetlitsky began studying violin at four and later composed music. From the late 1880s Svetlitsky studied at Mykola Murashko's Kyiv Drawing School and continued his studies at St. Petersburg Academy of Arts during the 1890s working under and influenced by Ilya Repin, Mykola Kuznetsov, Arkhip Kuindzhi, and Pavel Chistyakov. Prior to the revolutionary period beginning in 1917, Svetlitsky's work comprised paintings of landscapes, portraits and genre scenes featuring lyrical treatments of light and atmosphere, while he also worked on the decoration and restoration of monuments including St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. A distinctive feature of Svetlitsky's career to-date was the interaction between his two artistic identities. He continued to compose and play music while painting, and a number of his paintings were explicitly connected with musical themes. Svitlitsky lost his wife and son during the revolution and returned permanently to Kyiv in 1919. The post-revolutionary period brought a change in subject matter. He produced graphic work, book illustrations, posters, and paintings depicting contemporary political and social themes. He became associated with the Association of Artists of Red Ukraine and later the Ukrainian artistic organization formed in 1929. In 1946, Svetlitsky was awarded the title "People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR," becoming the first Ukrainian artist to receive that distinction. In the final years of his life, Svetlitsky taught at the Kyiv Art Institute. Stylistically the present work is from the pre-revolutionary period when Svitlitsky was working in a rich, impressionist style. Subject matter like the present work often combined everyday life, Ukrainian settings, and the atmospheric effects of light. The figure resting momentarily on a bench along a rural path sits in a dark overcoat amongst shadowy tree trunks while the receding path strewn with autumn leaves guide the eye along a rustic, blue-painted fence toward a welcoming house just beyond the tree line. Blacklight: A pea-sized touch-up in the background of the upper left quadrant. A thin 2-inch curved band of touch-up in the center of the lower edge. Other scattered small flecks of possible touch-up, difficult to read under uneven varnish application. Frame: 40 3/4 x 58 3/4 x 3 in. Condition reports are offered as a courtesy and are typically published in Moran's catalogue or can be made available upon request. The absence of a condition report does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of others. Buyers are responsible for determining to their own satisfaction the true nature and condition of any lot prior to bidding. Though buyers are not legally required to inspect lots prior to purchase, failure to do so may constitute a waiver of complaint that an item was not delivered in a condition equal to the existent condition at the auction.

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