Lot 120: Wladimir Georgiewitsch von Bechtejeff

Wladimir Georgiewitsch von Bechtejeff (1878 Moskau - 1971 Moskau). Zirkusszene. Um 1910 Oil on cardboard, mounted on canvas. Monogrammed lower left (in the triangle).49,8 x 73 cm (19,6 x 28,7 in). Provenienz: Charles Henry Kleemann, Höhenschäftlarn near Munich.Villa Grisebach, Berlin, auction 27, 27.11.1992, lot 13.Private collection North Germany. Ausstellung: Der Blaue Reiter und Das Neue Bild 1909 - 1912. Von der 'Neuen Künstlervereinigung München' zum 'Blauen Reiter', Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, 2.7.-3.10.1999, p. 349, cat.no. 210 (with full page colour chart 136). Das Neue Bild. Veröffentlichung der Neuen Künstlervereinigung/München, text by Otto Fischer, Munich 1912.After completing his training at the Military Academy in Moscow, Vladimir Bechtejeff began to study painting at the Moscow Academy of Arts in 1902. On Alexej von Javlensky's advice, he moved to Munich the same year, where he continued his studies under Heinrich Knirr until 1905. From 1906 to 1909, Bechtejeff lived in Paris. Returning to Munich, he joined the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung München' in 1909, which he left again in 1912 in protest against a self-publicising attack by the group on abstract painting. Bechtejeff's works at this time with their bright use of colour were strongly influenced by Javlensky, whilst his shimmering brush strokes were reminiscent of the works of Late Impressionism. His years in Paris exerted a formative influence on Bechtejeff. The result was paraphrases of Édouard Manet's 'Oympia" and Paul Cézanne's 'Les Grandes Baigneuses", which Bechtejeff saw in Paris. Our picture is indebted thematically to the celebrated Paris life. The French Impressionists were the first to put the new bourgeois pleasures into their pictures. The theatre, cafés, varieté - especially the Moulin Rouge - race-tracks and circus arenas were the theatres in which social life operated and as such they provided the art of the time with its motifs. Henri Toulouse-Lautrec was supreme in capturing these transient scenarios and depicting them in a hectic dynamic. Bechtejeff, by contrast, has here chosen a representation of dressage for his painting, a moment of calm. He presents the bodies of the bluish black horses, whose suppleness and elegance match that of the trainer, with the ornamental play of line typical of his handling. There are also overtones of typical Munich local colour. It was Franz Marc who was so intensely preoccupied with representing animals during those years and they may have formally influenced Bechtejeff. Whereas Marc sought the animal and primal aspect of life with his animals, in Bechtejeff they seem part of the scene and fuse with human beings to an image of artificial beauty that still seems to radiate the Paris spirit. With the beginning of the First World War, Bechtejeff's artistic development broke off abruptly. He returned to Russia and was immediately called up for military service. Afterwards Bechtejeff worked initially at the Moscow Commission for the Preservation of Historical Monuments, and then, between 1921 and 1922, as a stage builder, later becoming Design Manager of the Moscow State Circus. He devoted his later works to watercolour and gouache in addition to oil painting. The Lenbachhaus in Munich owns an important collection of paintings from his time in Munich. [KR]In good condition. Isolated tiny retouchings (?). Irregular varnish on the left margin near the tail, not interfering with the overall impression. Framed with paper tape along the edges.