Lot 29: Vladimir Georgievich Bekhteev , 1878-1971 Young Women at the well oil on canvas

signed with the artist's monogram l.l. oil on canvas

65 by 81.5cm., 25 1/2 by 32 1/4 in.

Dr. Richard Reiche, Barmen
Kunsthaus Lempertz, Köln, Moderne Kunst, 3 December 1994, lot 24
Private Collection, Japan

Vladimir Bekhteev was a member of the Neue Künstlervereinigung (1909) which was a prelude to Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). The artist contributed to most of the international exhibitions of avant-garde art, including the Vladimir Izdebsky Salon and the first Jack of Diamonds exhibition. While Vasily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and other artists associated with Der Blaue Reiter searched for ways of reflecting inner spiritual and emotional states through art, Vladimir Bekhteev's oeuvre always gravitated towards the classical order of beauty. In the offered lot,Young Women at the Well, Bekhteev arranges a group of five female figures within a framework of parallel and crossing diagonals. Massed on the picture plane, the figures are reduced to flat coloured shapes. The curvilinear patterns of the women's outlines and the shifting planes of vivid, light-filled colours suggest the influence of Futurism and Cubism. The simplified and rounded outlines of the figures are echoed in the rhythms of the landscape background, uniting both figures and setting into a vigorous and harmonious whole.