Nikolai Efimovich Kuznetsov

(Russian, 1876-1970)

Dancer

Footnotes

Provenance
Commission shop of the USSR 'Moscomissiontorg', N15 (label on verso)
Acquired from the above a European gentleman in the 1970s
Thence by descent to an important private collection, Europe

Works by Nikolai Kuznetsov (1876-1970) are mainly found in museum collections and are almost never offered at auctions. Kuznetsov's Dancer, 1917, is an excellent stylistic example of the art of the Jack of Diamonds group. The artist was a prominent member of the association and his works show the peculiarities of the Russian avant-garde.

Kuznetsov was born in 1876 in Moscow and studied painting in the studios of Russian masters Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin. In 1906, he participated, for the first time, in the exhibition of the Moscow Association of Artists. A year later he moved to Paris to study at the studios of Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and Colarossi, at the Vitti Academy with the Spanish impressionist Anglada Camaraza (1871-1959) and the post-impressionist Charles Guerin (1875-1939). Undoubtedly, the trip to France determined further development of the artist's style. He began designing for the theatre in 1917, and even organized his own theatre studio.

The Dancer may be one of his manifestations for his theatrical designs. Similar to the painting of the Dryads from the Chelyabinsk Museum; the dark haired and bare breasted woman's construction discards traditional forms. During this period, Kuznetsov engaged in the development of the expression of form, using a new stylistic technique. The dancer's body and dress are divided into planes that subtly infuse into a body in motion and dance. The borders of the dancer's body are underlined, typical of the artists of the Jack of Diamond group - such as I. I. Mashkov, P.P. Konchalovsky, A. I. Kuprin and R. R. Falk. Unlike the Dryads, the lack scenic of background departs from narrative, the dance is not concrete in time, we find the woman dancing with no plot, and left to our own imagination and a greater focus on her movement.

In the first years of Soviet era, Kuznetsov continued to work actively, and, like some of his associates in the avant-garde society, completely abandoned artistic pursuits and returns to realism in his painting. The Dancer is a unique and rare example of the pre-revolutionary avant-garde period of Kuznetsov, this voyage of stylistic discovery and experiments is very rare to see at auction.