Bogdanov-Belsky’s Best

Bogdanov-Belsky’s pre-revolutionary works include some of his most striking canvases, the scale alone often an indication of his artistic confidence. The present lot is an exceptional example of the qualities that mark out these rare, early paintings – tight brushwork, vivid blues and greens, and an impact that would grow gradually more diffuse with the looser strokes and muted palette that appear at times in his later works.

Sotheby’s.

Faces Reflect Coming Chaos

In the present lot there is an unmistakable sense of resolve in the boys’ expressions. Their tightly-pursed lips and concentration ground the pair to a pre-Revolutionary epoch: alert in the face of uncertainty rather than the glazed look of Soviet youth. 

Sotheby’s.

Country Character

Bogdanov-Belsky was famously interested in the expressiveness of country children: ‘Perhaps [they] have qualities that will always appeal and catch our attention, unaffected as they are by city culture or those uniform standards of dress which immediately strip away any sense of character from one’s face’. Source: Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s.

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Details

• Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky
• 1868-1945
• COUNTRY BOYS
• signed in Cyrillic and
• dated 1916 l.l.
• oil on canvas
• 153 by 124cm, 60 1/4 by 48 3/4 in.
• Source: Sotheby’s
• Link: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2012/important-russian-art-l12111/lot.35.html?locale=en

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