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Description: SIGNED AND DATED (MAKER'S MARKS)
signed in Latin l.r. and further inscribed A Dicky en Souvenir Amical, then further inscribed by R. Buckle:

A Robert/un souvenir de sa premiere visite a Roman Road (1) /annus mirabilis 1973, R. Buckle

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Medium: oil on canvas

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Dimensions: 68.5 by 49cm., 27 by 19 1/4 in.

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Provenance: PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE ENGLISH COLLECTOR

Gift from N.S. Goncharova to Richard Buckle, 1953

Given to the present owner by Richard Buckle, 1973

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Notes:

Painting and theatre work are indivisible... but painting is an inner necessity for theatre design, not the reverse (2)


Sergei Diaghilev played an important role in the launch of Natalia Goncharova's career in the West. In his 1906 exhibition of Russian Art at the Salon d'Automne in Paris he included some early works by the artist; later she was invited by Diaghilev to design costumes and sets for the ballet Coq d'Or in the 1914 Saison Russe in Paris. The ballet premiered in May 1914 and Goncharova's first visit to Paris was for this event. She later settled there in 1918.

In 1916 Diaghilev persuaded her to travel to Spain with his company to work on a season of ballet shows in San Sebastian. She designed costumes for two ballets on a Spanish theme, Spanish Rhapsody, to the music of Maurice Ravel and Triana, neither of which were ever performed. It is at this time that the theme of the Spanish woman first enters her work. Perhaps in the image of the Spanish lady, dressed in a traditional lace mantilla she found a Western European echo of the Russian bride with her decorative kokoshnik, and the floral shawls worn by Russian peasant woman.

Goncharova gave Espagnole with Pink Magnolia to the theatre critic and curator Richard Buckle (1916-2001) when he was working on the famous Diaghilev Exhibition in Edinburgh in 1953. According to Roy Strong, this exhibition was a landmark of the postwar era, not only as a celebration of the outstanding achievements of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, but also for Buckle's innovation as an exhibition curator (3). The exhibition itself, quite apart from the works on display, was an act of theatre: the rooms were dressed as tents hung with chandeliers, each room on a separate theme and even the air was perfumed with Diaghilev's favourite scent.

In his biography of Diaghilev, Buckle describes his visits to Larionov and Goncharova's flat in Paris while selecting works for the Edinburgh exhibition: "The interior of the apartment is unique. No walls and almost no ceilings or floors are visible: the three rooms and the little vestibule are crammed from top to bottom with books, parcels of drawings, pictures, and portfolios."(4). Of Goncharova's generosity, he comments:"Possessing nothing except their talents, they could with difficulty be restrained from giving everything away. After a while I ceased expressing admiration for individual paintings, as I was being showered with gifts"(5)

For more information on the theme of the Espagnole in Goncharova's oeuvre, see note to lot 176.

1. Roman Road was the name of Richard Buckle's house in Dorset

2. Chamot, M. Goncharova, Stage Designs and Paintings, London, 1979, p.16

3. Roy Strong, "Richard Buckle, Ballet Critic Who Revolutionised Exhibition Design and Wrote Biographies of Diaghilev and Nijinsky", Guardian, Saturday October 13th 2001

4. Richard Buckle, In Search of Diaghilev, 1979, p.81

5. ibid, p.81