⊕ ALEXANDER DREVIN (1889-1938) Riders crossing a mountain stream

oil on canvas 60 x 70 cm painted in 1930 PROVENANCE: Estate of the artist LITERATURE: Veronika Starodubova, ‘Aleksander Drevin 1889-1938’, Moscow 2005, no. 55, p. 229, full page color illustration p. 96. Certificate of authenticity by Ekaterina Drevina-Udaltsova, granddaughter of the artist, from 14 May 1992 ‘Riders crossing a mountain stream’ is a prime example for the work of Alexander Drevin. The Latvian artist, who was an integral member of the Moscow art scene for several years together with his wife Nadeshda Udalzova, started to paint at the age of 19. During this time he had decided to go to a maritime school, but then he experienced a sudden urge to become a painter: ‘Amongst my friends was one who did a bit of painting. This new craze so possessed me that I forgot all about maritime school and began to sketch from nature, without any instruction, since my friend, too, was a beginner and we did not know any artists.’ Drevin entered Riga Art school and after a move to Moscow started to exhibit at the Moscow Union of Artists. He later became a teacher at Vkhutemas, the Russian state art and technical school that is famous for being one of the main institutions in the center of the Russian avant-garde. After the closing down of Vkhutemas Drevin returned to the painting from nature, a discipline that always fascinated him since studies from nature had first brought forth his wish to become a painter. During several komandirovki, state funded field trips troughout the territorium of the Soviet Union, Drevin studied very different and impressive landscapes. Together with Udalzova he travelled to the Urals, Altai, Kazakhstan and Armenia. In the year 1930 Drevin perfected his working method, making quick, dynamic drawings in situ which he would take to the studio to incorporate them in formalized, painterly landscapes with abstract overtones. In the studio Drevin had the possibility to remove all inessential detail and to experiment with different approaches to composition, often producing many variants of one theme in a series of paintings. Through that Drevin achieved to create pictures with unexpected and inventive composition. He did not want to depict exactly what he saw: ‘for me the decisive thing in art is not just what I see, but the emotional charge I get from what I see [...] and indeed, what can be more important for an artist than to feel one is drawing strength from two great sources: the force of life and the forces of nature. 1922-1930 - all those eight years I had identified with nature to the limit of my personal ability to do so.’ In 1930, the year ‘The crossing of the mountain stream’ was created, the artist felt he had achieved a great transformation in his style of painting. The painting in the studio had had given rise to what he felt was a ‘more intense style of painting’ and he was content that he had achieved to create a ‘new reality’. Bibliography: all quotes stem from a statement by Drevin originally printed in the journal ‘Tvorchestvo (Creativity), No. 4 (1934). ⊕ This lot is under temporary importation and is subject to import tax (5.5%) (EU) and administrative customs broker fees.