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Provenance: Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner in Russia in the 1920s
Thence by descent
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Exhibited: XIV Exhibition of Union of Russian Artists, 1916-17
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Literature: V.Fiala, Russian Art in Czechoslovakian Collections, Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1974, p.79, No.101, incorrectly dated, illustrated in colour
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Notes: View of Ai-Petri, Crimea is a rare work dating from Vinogradov's suberb 'southern series', which was exhibited at the XIV Exhibition of the Society of Russian Artists in December 1916 and is represented in only a few museum collections. Vinogradov first visited the Crimea in 1915 partly for health reasons, accompanied by Irina Kazimirovna Voitsekhovsky, previously a pupil of his from the Stroganov Academy and whom he later married. The present lot dates from the third summer they spent together at the base of Ai-Petri in the town of Alupka, where Vinogradov was captivated by the winding lanes and exotic bazaars.
The influence of Cézanne's paintings of Mont Saint-Victoire is evident in Vinogradov's numerous depictions of Ai-Petri. A great connoisseur of French art, Vinogradov acted as close advisor to the famous collectors Mikhail and Ivan Morozov who owned several works by Cézanne including Montagne Sainte-Victoire (fig.2, 1896-98, The State Hermitage Museum, acquired by Ivan Morozov in 1907). In the offered lot, the tightly-cropped composition of clustered rural buildings surrounded by cypress trees and viewed from a low vantage point is strongly reminiscent of Cézanne's Provencal landscapes. Interestingly, Ivan Morozov acquired a similar view of Ai-Petri by Vinogradov for his own collection (fig.3, Ai-Petri, 1917, Lunacharsky Art Museum, Krasnodar).
Plunged in shadow, the middle distance of the present lot sets off the sunlight on the white facades and distant rock faces with a luminosity that also recalls the vibrant atmosphere of Konstantin Korovin's Crimean canvases. Vinogradov often visited Korovin's Gurzuf villa 'Salambo', a favourite haunt of pre-revolutionary artists, and described it in his memoirs as a centre of 'joyful life'. With its distinctive topography and historical associations however, the Crimea, and Ai-Petri in particular, had long been an attractive destination for Russian intelligentsia. Having seen the mountain for the first time, Isaac Levitan wrote to Anton Chekhov, '...I started crying, crying hard; there it was - the eternal beauty...' Few artists combined this magnificence with such Korovin-esque love for life as successfully as Vinogradov in his 1915-17 series of paintings, of which the offered lot is an outstanding example.
