Lot 318: BOGOMAZOV, ALEKSANDR 1880-1930 Portrait of Vanda Monastyrskaya

BOGOMAZOV, ALEKSANDR 1880-1930 Portrait of Vanda Monastyrskaya with a sketch of a landscape on the reverse, also inscribed in Cyrillic with an authentication by the artist's daughter A. Ivanikova Oil on canvas, 36 by 24 cm.
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist's family by the current owner.

Related Literature: For a similar work, see Exhibition catalogue, A. Bogomazov, The State Russian Museum, Palace Editions, St Petersburg, 2008, p. 34.

Alexander Bogomazov painted Vanda Monastyrskaya on several occasions, even before they got married in 1913. Five years before, they had met at the Kiev Art School, which they both attended.

Vanda was not only Bogomazov's wife, but also his muse, supporting the artist in his creative work. It was to his wife that he dedicated his principal theoretical work, Painting and its Elements, which he accomplished in 1914. In 1916, Vanda wrote to her husband, "I want to tell you that you are not an ordinary mortal in art, that your work is sublime and profoundly beautiful, that in it there is the passionate power of lines, the movement of all molecules of the world..."

The present work is possibly a preparatory study for another monochrome portrait of the artist's wife, exhibited at the State Russian Museum in 2008. However, Portrait of Vanda Monastyrskaya must be seen as a finished work, and is a striking example of Bogomazov's talent as a portrait painter.