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PROPERTY FROM THE FAMILY OF THE ARTIST

RUSSIAN, 1887-1938
KABUKI DANCER

measurements
41 by 27 in.

alternate measurements
105.4 by 70 cm

stamped (lower right)

tempera on canvas

PROVENANCE

Alexander Yakovlev (thence by descent)

NOTE

Russian painter, graphic artist and designer, Alexander Yakovlev was on a trip to China when the Russian Revolution broke out. He would never again return to Russia, settling instead in Paris. It was there that his reputation as a traveling artist flourished. He was appointed the official artistic advisor to the Citroën voyages across Africa and Asia, well-publicized caravan journeys led by Georges-Marie Haardt, called Croiserie Noir and Croiserie Jaune. These voyages allowed Yakovlev to bring back drawings and painting of a variety of cultures to a France hungry for exotic images. Critics were dazzled by Yacovlev's Croiserie output calling him "the most accomplished and the most astonishing type, of those very rare ones for whom Fortune is waiting in the heart of the strangest regions with a store of unknown treasures." (La Renaissance)

Yakovlev's two years in China and Japan were crucial for the evolution of his style. He was so sympathetic to his subjects that he took to signing his canvases with a seal engraved with the Chinese phonetic transcription of his name, ``Ya-Ko-Lo-Fu,'' the last character, Fu, signifying happiness.

Yakovlev was an amateur scholar of Chinese and Japanese theater and Kabuki Dancer powerfully captures the artist's knowledge and passion. Notebooks Yakovlev kept on his Eastern voyages betray his obsession with the verité of cultural details-- everything from utensils to wardrobe was carefully delineated. In a letter sent from Peking, the artist writes, ``Now I hear the tinkling of the strolling coiffeur's copper plates; the double bladed knife of the grinder cuts the quiet air in two with its strident notes; the porter's cry seems like a rhythmic lamentation--and all those sounds group themselves and interlace in the strengthening rays of the yellow and blue dawn. They assume tangible form and tell us the prodigious legend of life, with which is contrasted the bleak silence, the legend of death, the end of the city imperial, the forbidden city.'' (As translated in Jacovleff and Other Artists by Martin Birnbaum.) This exuberance--in sensuous color, patterns, texture and composition--is evident in this gorgeous painting, fresh to the market from the artist's family collection.

Not surprisingly, Yakovlev's prodigious talents were not as appreciated in the Soviet Union as they were in Paris. Considered a political renegade by the communist government, the country rejected the artist's gift of one of his finest paintings executed in China.