Lot 198: Nikolai Vladimirovich Remisoff, 1887-1979 , russian tavern gouache and watercolour on paper

signed in Latin l.l. and dated 21 ; also stamped with provenance in Latin on the reverse gouache and watercolour on paper

52 by 67cm., 20½ by 26¼in.

Zhar-ptitsa, Prague, November 1921, No.2, illustrated p.7

The Collection of Akim Tamirov, USA

Nikolai Remisoff-Vasiliev, as he was known before emigration, was an active participant of the World of Art exhibitions in the early 1910s. He founded the influential political journal Satyricon, where he published drawings under his nom de plume Re-Mi. Fearing persecution by the Bolsheviks over his cartoons, he fled Russia, arriving in Paris in 1920. A core member of the Russian émigré community there, he was made chief designer alongside Sudeikin for Nikita Balieff's Chauve souris theatre company. It was here that he met Akim Tamirov, and the two became life-long friends. The theme of the traditional Russian tavern is one which has inspired a great number of Russian artists, notably Boris Kustodiev in his 1916 work Moscow Tavern. The offered work is one of the earliest, dated versions of a tavern interior executed in 1921 and 1922. These were widely exhibited and published and Remisoff also incorporated the image into his stage designs for the Chauve souris production of The Brothers Zaitsev. In 1924 Remisoff left Balieff's company to open a Russian-themed nightclub, Club Petrouchka, whose walls he decorated with murals depicting scenes from a Russian tavern. The venture was short-lived since the building was consumed by fire a year later.