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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN
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In 1995 a coloured gouache by Kazimir Malevich, which had been part of a private collection in France for a long time, was brought to the Tretyakov Gallery for research. The owners had asked for it to be authenticated, and the subsequent evaluation was carried out by Julia Zabrodina, Senior Researcher in the Graphic Department, and by me, Elena Zhukova.

Our examination convinced us that it was genuine. We were immediately struck by the energy expressed in the vivid colours of the drawing which we provisionally titled Harvest, and by the mystical solemnity of its composition. The materials used by the artist (the type of paper, pencil and pigments), the style of the work, and the signature, painted with a brush, were all identical to the primitive creations of 1911-1912 from the collection of Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum; The Bather, On the Boulevard, The Gardener, The Floor Polishers (fig. 1) and others.

The master's hand in the preliminary pencil sketch, the loose brush strokes and the rhythmical gouache drawing on the paper are completely persuasive. The pace of the work also proves that it is genuine Malevich. Harvest is a transitional link between the works mentioned above; the so called 'fauvist gouaches' with their genre themes, and the paintings of the first peasant series of 1912-1913. These works are characterised by coloured forms that appear to be constructed out of rigid, coloured shapes. One of these works, the famous Taking in the rye (fig. 2, Stedelijk Museum) was shown at the Donkey's Tail exhibition in Moscow in March 1912. It is clear that, in Harvest the artist is searching for a new rhythmical device, prominently modelling peasants' torsos in the space of a cornfield.

Harvest was created on paper glued to a cardboard backing. On the reverse side of the cardboard we found a similar piece of paper, primarily attached to strengthen the work but it also had some sketches and Malevich's signature. Such usage of the reverse side for a sketched draft of the work is typical of the artist, and in this case the sketches on the reverse side of Harvest presage a method later used by Malevich in his Cubo-futuristic painting the Portrait of Ivan Kliun (the Builder) (fig. 3, State Russian Museum, St Petersburg). The artist called this painting, which was presented at the Target exhibition in Moscow in spring 1913, 'the improved portrait', for in it he had expressed the topic in a completely different way to his earlier 1912 portrait of Kliun.

The major element of this later work is present in these sketches; the eye motif. The eye's slashed and shifted depiction is the key to the dynamics of the piece. The builder's head is a construction of moveable elements which have been likened to builders' materials and carpenters tools, whereas the eyes are shining glass prisms. This monumental image, and its many and varied visual and auditory associations, is the personification of Creation and could be regarded as one of the most significant of Malevich's works. The sketches found on the reverse of Harvest provide crucial evidence of the development of the artist's ideas over time.

During examination of the physical structure of the double-sided work it became apparent that the whole pad, the two sheets of paper glued to cardboard, had been prepared by the artist before he drew on it. For this reason the experts suggested to the owners of Harvest that they should arrange to have the sheets of paper removed from the cardboard to check for any other sketches or inscriptions.

A Parisian restorer of graphic art conducted a highly professional disassembly of the paper from the cardboard, resulting in the discovery of two earlier drawings by Malevich, both nude model studies. The experts' opinion is that the artist had created them while in Rerberg's private art school in Moscow during the period 1906-1910 (the drawings reflect Rerberg's rules of nude drawing) and that, judging by the level of skill present in the depiction of the models and the overall integrity of the drawings, they were most likely created towards the end of his time in the school.

In the 1900s Malevich had made several attempts to enter the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, for which attendance at Rerberg's drawing classes was a necessary qualification. However, after 1910 the artist began to radically change his priorities and sought a new way in art. These works demonstrate how, in early 1912 Malevich almost casually destroyed two of his earlier studies simply to use the paper for his new work. The 'hidden' drawings of Harvest effectively represent the traditions that Malevich was abandoned in favour of innovative ideas and a willingness for explosive, rapid creative development.

We are grateful to Elena Zhukova, Works on Paper Department (18th - early 20th centuries) at the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, for preparing this note.