Galerie Dreyfus
37
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NATALIA GONTCHAROVA LADYJINO, 1881 – PARIS, 1962
At the Café…
See original version (French)
37
-
NATALIA GONTCHAROVA LADYJINO, 1881 – PARIS, 1962
At the Café…
See original version (French)
Estimate €180,000 - €230,000
Voluntary lot
Description
NATALIA GONTCHAROVA
LADYJINO, 1881 – PARIS, 1962
At the Café
1912–1913
Oil on canvas
67.5 x 57 cm.
Signed lower left in Latin ‘N. Gontacharova’
Provenance
Private collection
Certificate
Jean Chauvelin, Paris.
This couple seated at a table on a café terrace presents us with a scene of seduction in which the man,
eagerly, whispers a speech into the ear of a woman who listens attentively but
with a sceptical pout. Behind them, the imposing figure of a waiter towers over them and seems to
be watching them out of the corner of his eye. Bordering on caricature, Natalia Gontcharova captures her
contemporaries in their everyday lives, endowing them with facial expressions as if they were performing in a
play. Without being moralising, the scene is part of the tradition of the
genre scene, which captures an everyday moment by exaggerating it. Here, the man, whose boater
hat lies on the table, belongs to the bourgeoisie, as evidenced by his elegant suit. The
woman, by contrast, is of humble origins, dressed simply with a shawl tied over her
shoulders—which probably covered her head. The waiter’s kossovorotka, a white shirt,
further confirms that we are in Russia. Drawn with broad strokes, the silhouettes
of the figures stand out against an almost abstract background where the painter’s brushwork is
omnipresent, diffracting the space into a patchwork of colours that almost become patterns.
Arranged in alternating bands of hatching, the blues, greys and whites occupy the upper, airy
space of the composition, whilst a monochrome palette of yellow ochres evokes the earthy quality of the
ground. The space is thus more symbolic than topographical, with the straight tree on the
left serving as a sign to indicate that the scene is set outdoors. Drawing on the
conventions of medieval icon painting, which she adapts to her own ends, Goncharova experiments here with a
radical simplification of space that would lead her to Rayonism.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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