Lot 245: Graafland, Robert 1875 Maastricht - 1940 Heerlen The fountain of Bachtschissarai (?).

Graafland, Robert
1875 Maastricht - 1940 Heerlen

The fountain of Bachtschissarai (?). Signed and dated lower right: Graafland 1901. Oil on canvas. Relined. 90 x 122cm. Framed.

Monique Dickhaut, Museum aan het Vrijthof, Maastricht, will include the painting in her monograph of the artist. She kindly asks the buyer to contact her regarding a future exhibition. Dickhout writes: "Robert Graafland believed a painter should
only paint a subject he could see, that means the landscape he is living in or the people
he knows. In 1916-1917 he left that idea and he explored themes like 'Young Love' or 'Joy
of life'. He always situated these themes in his beautiful garden or the fields around
Maastricht. I have never seen a painting like this. Maybe it is a theme from an opera...".

Our consigner assumes that the image refers to a theme from Pushkin's "Fountain of Bakhchisaray", which Anton Stepanovitch Arensky converted into a cantata in 1899.

The painting is pictured in a photo of the artist's studio in Heksenhoek/Maastricht.