Lot 25: NIKOLAI ANDREEVICH TYRSA

NIKOLAI ANDREEVICH TYRSA 1887-1942 MODEL ON GREEN, 1933 31 1/2 by 22 1/2 in., 57.5 by 80 cm

Leningrad, Exhibition of Works by N.A. Tyrsa (1887-1942), LOSKh, May-June 1946
Leningrad, State Russian Museum, Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa, LOSKh RSFSR, 1967
Leningrad, Exhibition to Mark the Centenary of Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa's Birth, 1987
St.Petersburg, State Russian Museum, Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (1887-1942): oil, graphics, glass-work, 1992
Moscow, Art-Divage Gallery, Discreet Charm of a Faint Object of Desire, 2003
Kazan, State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (1887-1942): paintings, graphics, March-April 2004
Moscow, Art-Divage Gallery, Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (1887-1942): paintings, graphics, April-May 2004

V. Petrova and A.M. Zemtsova et al., Exhibition of Works by Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (1887-1942), Leningrad, 1946, p. 7
State Russian Museum, Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa, LOSKh RSFSR, Leningrad, 1967, p. 16
Exhibition Catalogue, Exhibition to Mark the Centenary of Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa's Birth, Leningrad, 1987, listed under works for 1933, p. 15, illustrated
State Russian Museum, Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (1887-1942): paintings, graphics, glass-work, St. Petersburg, 1992, p. 45, no. 20
Art-Divage Gallery, Discreet Charm of a Faint Object of Desire, Moscow, 2003, no. 56, illustrated
State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan, Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (1887-1942): paintings, graphics, Moscow, 2004
State Russian Museum, Nikolai Andreevich Tyrsa (1887-1942): paintings, graphics, Moscow, 2004, p. 26, no. 3, illustrated

The artist
Thence by descent

Nikolai Tyrsa received a somewhat untraditional art education, studying only briefly at the St. Petersburg Academy and later as a student to Leon Bakst, whom he credited as his principal mentor.

It was not until the 1930s that Tyrsa fully embraced oil paints as a medium and the female nude as a characteristic subject. The present lot serves as one of the finest examples of this period in the artist's oeuvre. He employed a uniquely vivid palette, evoking a sense of optimism that would seemingly clash with the common hardships of this time in Soviet history. In early 1942 Tyrsa was evacuated from a besieged Leningrad to Vologda, only to die there shortly afterward. His reputation endures, and his works are represented in major museum collections including both the State Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery.