Back

Portrait of the Wife

Boris Grigoriev

Basic information

ID: Ж-4461
Author: Boris Grigoriev
Name: Portrait of the Wife
Date of creation: 1917
Country: russia
Culture: Eastern Europe
Technique: oil painting
Material: canvas oil
Dimensions: 98 x 63 cm (height x width)

Additionally

Type: painting
Genre: portraiture
Provenance: Purchased from M. Steinhardt-Mekkel in Lviv, 1970
Exposition: Lozinski Palace

Information about author

Author: Boris Grigoriev
Artist's lifetime: 1886–1939
Country: russian empire
Biography: Boris Grigoriev (July 11 (23), 1886 – 1939) is a famous Russian artist of the first half of the 20th century. He created genre compositions, portraits, and sometimes landscapes. He studied at the Stroganov School of Art and the Higher School of the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. The artist made several creative trips to Germany, Greece, Italy, and Switzerland. He studied for four months in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1919, Boris Grigoriev emigrated from Soviet Russia. He lived and worked in Germany in Berlin and after that in France, the USA, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. In 1927, the family settled in the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer (France), near Nice. Among the most interesting creations by Boris Grigoriev from the emigration period are the "Breton cycle" and landscape works with images of the tropical nature of Latin American countries.

Object description

A half-length portrait of a young woman, seated, with her foot resting on her leg. On the woman's head is a black hat with the brim down. The woman is dressed in a white blouse with long sleeves and a large collar, a red waistcoat and a brown skirt. In fact, most of the painting is occupied by a conventional image of a dark blue sky with a sprawling tree on the left. The Portrait of a Wife is based on the juxtaposition of three colours: blue, red and white. The black ribbons from the hat concentrate attention on the woman's face. The intertwined fingers of the hands express her inner tension. The shadow of the hat falls on her eyes. The gaze is directed to "nowhere", or rather, to the depths of her own worries. Today, the image of this woman can be seen through the prism of the anxieties and worries of an entire era.

Inscriptions

In the bottom right is the author's signature: "Boris Grigoriev, 1917"

Portrayed person