Lot 31: * TERPSIKHOROV, NIKOLAI (1890-1960) Letter from the Front

* TERPSIKHOROV, NIKOLAI (1890-1960) Letter from the Front, signed and dated 1947, also further signed, titled in Cyrillic and dated on the reverse. Oil on canvas, 130 by 171 cm. Provenance: Acquired directly from Natalia Terpsikhorova, the artist’s daughter, by the present owner in Moscow, 1990s.
Important private collection, USA.

Authenticity certificate from Natalia Terpsikhorova.

Exhibited: Nikolai Terpsikhorov, Master Artist of Mother Russia , Springville Museum of Art, Springville, USA, 13 September–16 October 2008.

Literature: Nikolai Borisovich Terpsikhorov , Moscow, Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1954, illustrated.
V. Swanson, Soviet Impressionism, Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2001, p. 95, pl. 53, illustrated.
V. Swanson, Soviet Impressionist Painting , Woodbridge, Antique Collectors’ Club, 2008, p. 94, pl. 58, illustrated.
Exhibition catalogue, Nikolai Terpsikhorov, Master Artist of Mother Russia , Springville, Springville Museum of Art, 2008, p. 38, pl. XVII, illustrated; p. 99, listed.
Nikolai Terpsikhorov. Zhivopis, Grafika , Moscow, 2011, p. 97, illustrated.

There is a successful contrast between the emotions of the two characters in the painting Letter from the Front : the joyful optimism of the girl on the right, reading a soldier’s letter, and the anxiety mixed with hope seen in the face of her listener, the mature woman on the left, most probably the soldier’s mother. Sunlight pours in from the window, enveloping the figures, and bringing an extra life-affirming note to the composition. The dexterous brush of the artist uses interior details to emphasise the wartime hardships of civilian life: the firewood heaped on the windowsill, the paraffin lamp in the background and the meager ration of bread on the table. But the strongly positive message of the picture is underwritten by its dominant warm amber and reddish hues.