Lot 130: BRUNI, LEV 1894-1948 Lavrik is Sick

BRUNI, LEV 1894-1948 Lavrik is Sick c. 1920s Watercolour on laid paper, 59 by 44 cm.
Exhibited: Deti v strane knig, Galereya na Lenivke, Moscow, 2005-2006.

Literature: Exhibition catalogue, Deti v strane knig, Moscow, 2005, p. 13, illustrated.
A. Sarabyanov, Zhizneopisanie khudozhnika L'va Bruni, Moscow, 2009, p. 351, illustrated.

This splendid watercolour from the brush of Lev Bruni belongs to a group of intimate "family" works which the artist painted over many years. The warmth of this work, uncommonly humane and fatherly, triggers in us a wave of positive emotion. Bruni was an artist of many talents and varied skills. In the perceptive words of Andrei Sarabianov, "many powerful trends of the era came together in his art". Having taken the historical and "gently educational" route from academicism to the avant-garde during his early career, on the basis of radically opposed stylistic platforms and trends, Bruni then developed his own hybrid style which was surprisingly unlike anyone else, his own "figurative-academic" avant-garde. Among the works which have come down to us from this artist are a great many splendid and highly professional oil paintings. However, watercolour and coloured inks are without a doubt his real "calling card", allowing us to judge the artist as a real innovator and transformer of traditional approaches.