MIKHAIL LARIONOV (RUSSIAN 1881-1964)
Still Life of Flowers in a Jug and a Pear, ca, 1902-1906
oil on canvas
27.3 x 35.5 cm (10.75 x 14 in)
framed dimensions: 44.4 x 52 cm (17.5 x 20.5 in)
signed

PROVENANCE
Christie's, London, Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Pictures, Drawings and Sculpture, 5 December 1975, Lot 317
Private Collection
Sotheby's, Fine Australian and European Paintings, Melbourne, 25 August 1997, lot 52

LOT NOTES
This still life, characterized by a luminous palette of ochres and saturated yellows, represents a pivotal moment in Mikhail Larionov’s career during his transition from a traditional Russian education to the vanguard of the European avant-garde. Executed between 1902 and 1906, the work captures the essence of the artist’s Impressionist phase, a period primarily associated with his frequent returns to his birthplace of Tiraspol. During these years, Larionov was deeply invested in the study of light and its transformative effect on everyday objects. Before his 1906 visit to Paris for the Salon d’Automne, Larionov’s output was defined by a pastoral yet modernist sensibility, heavily influenced by the World of Art movement and the shimmering, atmospheric landscapes of Igor Grabar. The choice of subject - a simple floral arrangement paired with a solitary pear - is typical of his student years at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. In these early compositions, the object serves merely as a vehicle for the exploration of reflected light and optical texture, foreshadowing the analytical breakdown of form that would later characterize his invention of Rayonism.

The significance of this specific canvas is greatly enhanced by the inscriptions found on its verso. The handwritten dedication A Phienka translates from French and Latin scripts to To Phienka, referring to Alexandra Tomilina, Larionov’s lifelong partner and eventual second wife. Tomilina, affectionately known by the diminutive Phienka, moved to Paris with Larionov and Natalia Goncharova in 1915 and remained the primary steward of the artist’s legacy until her own passing in 1987. A dedication to Phienka almost exclusively indicates that the painting remained in the artist’s private collection for decades, serving as a personal gift or a cherished studio piece rather than a work intended for immediate commercial sale during his early career.

While the stylistic execution of the painting dates to the first decade of the twentieth century, the signature M. Larionow on the reverse utilizes the Latinized W characteristic of the artist’s Paris years. It was common practice for Larionov to retrospectively sign and dedicate earlier works late in his life, often in the 1950s or early 1960s, as he sought to organize his estate and codify his place in art history. This discrepancy between the early Impressionist style and the later Parisian signature is a hallmark of authentic works from the Larionov-Tomilina Archive, as the artist reviewed his life's work through the lens of his established Western identity before the bequest was finalized.

The physical history of the object is further documented by the presence of various inventory markings that provide a clear trail of provenance. The black stenciled codes 732 XII and 362 XA are consistent with the Soviet-era state inventorying systems used during the processing of the Tomilina bequest in the late 1980s. Following her death, a massive portion of the estate was transferred to the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Works bearing these specific stencils were those formally cataloged by Soviet experts in Paris or Moscow before being distributed to state collections or, in certain instances, retained by the estate’s Western heirs for international sale. Additional alphanumeric notations, such as the ink mark A 8222 A, align with the stock numbering systems used by major Western galleries that specialized in the Russian avant-garde during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Institutions such as Galerie Beyeler in Basel or Galerie Gmurzynska in Cologne played a central role in bringing Larionov’s estate to the international market. These markings act as a provenance trail, linking the painting from the artist’s studio in Paris to the global collectors who rediscovered the importance of his early experiments with color and mass.

A Still Life of Flowers in a Jug and a Pear provides the foundational logic for the later radical movements of the Russian avant-garde. The way Larionov treats the edges of the flower petals and the skin of the pear - not as solid borders but as zones of intersecting light - reveals the seeds of Rayonism. By isolating humble provincial subjects and elevating them through sophisticated painterly techniques, Larionov began the process of deconstructing the academic tradition. This work is not merely a decorative still life but an analytical study of the radiant energy that Larionov would eventually strip of all representational qualities in his later abstract compositions.

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