Important European Collection of Russian Art, plus Other Properties
30 May 2020
41. SUDEIKIN, SERGEI (1882–1946)
Lady with Parakeets .
Oil on canvas, laid on cardboard, 47 by 47 cm.
40,000–60,000 GBP
Provenance: Estate of the artist.
Zorin Collection, acquired from the above.
Private collection, USA, acquired from the above.
Russian Art, Sotheby's New York, 26 April 2006, lot 678.
Important private collection, Europe.
Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by Jeanne Soudeikine, the artist's widow (inscription on the label on the reverse).
Exhibited: Les artistes russes hors frontière, Musée du Montparnasse, Paris, 21 July–31 October 2010.
Neizvestnaia Rossiia. Russkoe iskusstvo pervoi poloviny XX veka, Salle d'exposition du Quai Antoine Ier, Monaco, 25 June–27 August 2015.
Literature: Exhibition catalogue, A. Hofmann, V. Hofmann, G. Khatsenkov, Les artistes russes hors frontière, Paris, Edition Paradox, 2010, p. 197, illustrated.
X. Muratova, Neizvestnaia Rossiia. Russkoe iskusstvo pervoi poloviny XX veka, Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 2015, p. 293, No. 238, illustrated.
The female portrait presented for auction owes much to Sudeikin’s lively enthusiasm for the culture and art of black America in the 1920-1930s. Finding himself in the United States with Nikita Balieff’s troupe, the artist was energised by the drive of the Harlem Renaissance, and he plunged headlong into the bohemian life of that New York district, which had become the centre of attraction for the intellectual and artistic élite. A regular at Harlem’s cafés and bars, Sudeikin spent his evenings watching the locals dancing as he soaked up the frenetic jazz rhythms of the famous Cotton Club, where the celebrated Duke Ellington played six nights a week from 1927 to 1931. The artist recorded his impressions in a number of paintings, such as Double Portrait. The Cotton Club. Harlem, Harlem hostess and Burlesque, and in numerous portraits of stars and visitors to these places.
According to Tamara Galeyeva, an expert on the artist’s emigration period, “Sudeikin hardly ever used his favourite grotesque techniques when portraying Harlem characters, filling the pictures instead with warm humour and poetic sentiment. He avoided harsh colour contrasts in his compositions, preferring to dress his dark-skinned female subjects in delicate pink, lilac and pale green garments that softened their vibrant, flamboyant appearance. The Harlem works were shown at exhibitions in the USA, were noticed by critics and found admirers among visitors and collectors alike. One of the admirers was the jazz virtuoso Duke Ellington himself, who came to Sudeikin’s New York studio to meet the artist personally and take a look at his paintings.”
The climax of the “black America” theme for Sudeikin was his work on the set designs for George Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess in 1935. To collect visual material, the artist went south to the town of Charleston, where DuBose Heyward had placed the action in the novel that inspired the opera and where the bulk of the population consisted of poor black people. The artist spent three packed weeks there and returned to New York with a heap of portraits and landscapes. The opera premiered in Boston and became a smash hit when it moved to Broadway, while Sudeikin successfully presented his “Harlem” series at several solo exhibitions at galleries in New York and Los Angeles.
The present lot as illustrated in the Exhibition catalogue, A. Hofmann, V. Hofmann, G. Khatsenkov, Les artistes russes hors frontière, Paris, Edition Paradox, 2010, p. 107.
The present lot as illustrated in X. Muratova, Neizvestnaia Rossiia. Russkoe iskusstvo pervoi poloviny XX veka, Milan, Silvana Editoriale, 2015, p. 293, No. 327.
Notes on symbols:
* Indicates 5% Import Duty Charge applies.
Ω Indicates 20% Import Duty Charge applies.
§ Indicates Artist's Resale Right applies.
† Indicates Standard VAT scheme applies, and the rate of 20% VAT will be charged on both hammer price and premium.