Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Painted by the artist in Paris in 1924-1925, probably as a commission for Clarté magazine or for one of its staff members
Acquired by a private collector from an art gallery in Paris, 2003-2004
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 2005

LITERATURE
Paper by V.I. Borodina at a recent conference Petrov-Vodkin i mu: iskusstvo na slome aepokh, Khvalynsk, 2013, August
V.I. Borodina, Frantsuzskii peizazh K.S. Petrova-Vodkina 'Na Sene', Russkoe Iskusstvo, 2013, October issue (publication forthcoming), pages 74-79

The landscape 'On the Seine' was created while Petrov-Vodkin was in Paris in 1924-1925. A professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg, Petrov-Vodkin was sent to Paris in order to familiarize himself with the curricula of Western European universities. The artist spent a year in France, where he completed several commissioned portraits and successfully sold several of his works, including the landscape 'On the Seine,' the buyers of which were most likely the editors of the magazine Clarté, or someone from the editorial board of the publication. Indirectly confirming this fact is a record of the painting in the artist's notebook, kept in the K.C. Petrov-Vodkin museum in his native city of Khvalynsk, in the Saratov region. This record enumerates all of the paintings the artist produced in Paris, including the landscape 'On the Seine,' the location of which was unknown until the present time. The name of the commissioner of the painting can be found listed next to the title of work as follows: 'On the Seine (for Clorte)'. It is possible that the artist made a mistake in the French spelling in this record, 'Clorte' therefore possibly referring to the magazine Clarté, as the artist made other, similar French spelling errors in other records. Nearly all of the intelligentsia visiting Paris from the Soviet Union in the 1920s was acquainted with the editors of this pro-Communist magazine, supervised by Henri Barbusse. Further evidence of the relationship between K.C. Petrov-Vodkin and the editors of Clarté lies in the artist's report, kept in the Russian State Archives of Literature and Art, completed upon his return to Moscow with the communists Henri Barbousse and Pierre Navil, editor and co-editor of the magazine Clarté, who were supporters of the Soviet Union.

'On the Seine' was purchased from a private gallery in Paris in 2003. The landscape constitutes the largest painting in Petrov-Vodkin's Paris series. It is unclear whether the artist painted the work of his own volition, or if he was commissioned to create it, but it is evident that in this case, the wishes of both the artist and the commissioner were aligned. In the same record of his trip abroad previously mentioned, Petrov-Vodkin recorded the name of the artist he specifically wanted to reference: 'Lec. Cezann' (likely referring to 'Leçon Cézanne,' or 'Cézanne's Lesson'). By the time Petrov-Vodkin arrived in Paris, he had already matured as an artist and acquired a distinguishable personal style. 'On the Seine' demonstrates Petrov-Vodkin's signature use of 'angled perspective'. The point of view of the artist seems to be from the top right, toward the central poplar tree. This style is typical of the artist for this period, as all of the works Petrov-Vodkin produced in Paris utilize a similar perspective style. Additionally, Petrov-Vodkin tended to use diluted inks around this time, possibly transferring the technique from ink on paper to oil on canvas. The colour palette, consisting of Prussian blue, cobalt, emerald green, red ochre and black, is also typical of the artist.

The artist's signature is consistent with the period attributed to the work, as is evident from examination under ultraviolet and infrared light. An analysis of the structure of the composition, as well as a comparison of the landscape to similar works by the artist in Paris of that year, prove that the present landscape is indeed the same work mentioned by Petrov-Vodkin in his notebook under the title 'On the Seine'.

We are grateful to the director of the Memorial Museum of K.C. Petrov-Vodkin, Valentina Ivanova Borodina, for her assistance in cataloguing the present lot.