Lot 129A: Aleksandr Evgen'evich Iakovlev (1887-1938)

View of Zinder, Niger
signed and dated 'AJacovleff/1924' (lower right)
oil on canvas
68 3/4 x 45 in. (174.5 x 114.3 cm.)

J. Gallotti, 'Du Coté de Chez Cham à L'Exposition A. Iacovleff', Vogue, May 1926, p. 3, illustrated.
A. Iakovlev, Dessins et Peintures d'Afrique. Croquis et Notes de voyage, Paris, 1927, illustrated.
C. Haardt de la Baume, Alexandre Iacovleff, l'artiste voyageur, Paris, 2000, p. 40, illustrated.
C. Haardt de la Baume, 'Alexandre Iacovleff et Georges-Marie Haardt, une passion commune pour l'Afrique', Alexandre Iacovleff, Itinérances, Paris, 2004, p. 199, no. 144, illustrated.

Private Collection.

Already a well-known figure in St. Petersburg, linked to the Russian ballet and to the worlds of theatre and music, the young Russian artist Iakovlev arrived in Paris in 1920 after spending two years in China, Mongolia and Japan. The exhibition of his works executed in the Far East at the gallery Barbazanges was a great success, which was confirmed by the publication of his Dessins et Peintures d'Extrème-Orient with the publisher Lucien Vogel.
Having become, at the request of André Citroën, the official painter of the 'Citroën Centre Afrique' Expedition (known afterwards as the Croisière Noire), Iakovlev crossed the African continent from North to South between 1924-25, driving through the Sahara, Sudan, Niger, Chad, the Belgian Congo, Mozambique and Madagascar. After his return in 1926, Iakovlev exhibited hundreds of his drawings and canvases at the Pavillion de Marsan at the Louvre and at the Galerie Charpentier. His works portrayed the indigenous people in their natural habitat and costumes as well as members of the exhibition such as Georges-Marie Haardt and Louis Audouin-Dubreuil.
The present painting of Zinder, executed in 1924 during the Croisière Noire, depicts the town when it was still the capital of the French Niger colony. Zinder, situated on the old trans-Saharan caravan route connecting the Northern parts of Nigeria with the African coast, was originally a walled town, dating back to the 11th Century. Conquered by the French in 1899 it served as the capital until it was transferred to Niamey, further West, in 1926.
Zinder holds a special place among Iakovlev's works from the Croisière Noire, due to its size and the skilfully executed composition, that gives the viewer the impression of being right at the heart of the fortified town with its terraced roof-tops. To recreate the atmosphere and the volumes of this citadel, Iakovlev uses a palette favouring smooth ochres, tangy oranges and vibrant reds. The bustling history of this former capital of the Sultans of Niger had been shaped through war, through violence and through blood, always subject to the greed of rivalling dynasties. Iakovlev is fascinated by this citadel, risen through the sand, and he writes in his notes on the 1st of December 1924:
'The Birni of Zinder. A group of rose crystals, born from the rose-coloured soil, mineralogical formations, cubes of which the vertical planes have taken a slight tilt towards the centre; such are the habitations of the Arabs, moulded in clay with the walls thickening towards the base... And among these clusters of rose crystals strange shapes are suggested, the flora of a neighbouring country: mushrooms with a funny top, mouldy and with the colour of dry hay, which are the huts of the Peuhls, the indigenous people. In this city, the peoples of the sand are introduced to the grassy bush country.' (A. Iakovlev, Dessins et peintures d'Afrique. Croquis et Notes de voyage, Paris, 1927)

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