1907-1909 “Impressionism” PDF Print E-mail

P.P.Konchalovsky reckons his art activity from 1907.

The artist more and more interests in the impressionists painting and after the termination of studying in the summer of 1907, writes a number of etudes in the impressionism manner. He lives near Moscow at the period.

House in Belkino. 1907

House in Belkino. 1907

Belkino. Garden. 1907

Belkino. Garden. 1907

In the autumn of 1907 he goes to Germany (Berlin), in December moves with the family to France (Paris, Arles, Sainte Maxime, Le Levanter, Nemours) and remains there till January, 1909.

France. Lavandou Mount. 1908

France. Lavandou Mount. 1908

Paris. A Boy with an Apple. 1908

Paris. A Boy with an Apple. 1908

In Paris he frequents the Louver and is interested in pre-Raphaelites’ art.

The artist is amazed with painting of Cezanne and Van Gogh.

I instinctively understood even at those years that without some new method there is no salvation – it is impossible to find the road to the real art. That’s why I have grasped at Cezanne as a drowning one would grasp at straws”.

Versaille. Ivies. 1908

Versaille. Ivies. 1908

Gardener. 1908

Gardener. 1908

Quotation is done out of V.A.Nikolsky’s “Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky” 1936. p.38

Under the influence of painting of Van Gogh he writes the gardens of Versailles and the south French landscapes, and, wishing to learn better his creativity, goes to Arles for a week and there writes a number of landscapes and a picture “A Woman of Arles”.

A Woman of Arles. 1908

A Woman of Arles. 1908

This is how A.A. Fedorov-Davydov characterizes Konchalovsky’s painting of this period in the article “The Nature of Style” (1929):

“… Process of transformation of additional tones in cooperating colors can be traced and in evolution of young P.P.Konchalovsky, who is typical “neo-primitivist” during this epoch. More directly connected with the French painting, he passed this way easier and more evidently, escaping the notorious “smoky veil” of “impressionism” period.

Nemours. 1908

Nemours. 1908

His “Nemours – France”, (1907-1908) is a sample of “optical mixture” of tones in “impressionistic” manner. The sky is formed with brush touches of all shades of blue, pink, lilac, which are participating also and in transferring of trunks of trees. The foliage is made of mass of tones of green and yellow, walls of houses – of yellow, pink, red, dark blue, lilac, pale-green, etc. But in “Palm trees”(1907) the color is already condensed, additional tones form independent adjoining groups exposing green, and in colors on ridges – red and green are contrasting, and the pieces of not written down canvas between them also play a color role; but the ground is still given by tonalities of pink-yellow-brown “.

St.-Maxime. Palms. 1908

St.-Maxime. Palms. 1908

Feodorov-Davidov – 1975. p.165

In 1909 P.P.Konchalovsky comes back to Moscow.

He makes a plafond for a drawing room in the house of a merchant Markushev in Ivanovo-Voznesensk. Later – receives the additional order to write four panels for a dining room: “Vintage”, “Gathering of olives”, “Harvest” and “Landing of geranium”.The summer he spends in Abramtzevo, writes landscapes, portraits, still-lives of flowers and fruit. At that period he continues working in a manner of “impressionism”.

Irises. 1909

Irises. 1909

Vintage. 1909

Vintage. 1909