VALENTIN YAKOVLEV (1887-1919) Venus and cherubs

signed, inscribed in Cyrillic and dated 'Nadezhde …. Na pamyat v gryaduschem o khoroshem minuvshem … 17/I 19 ’ [To Nadezhda…, remembering in the future the good times of the past… 17 January 1919] (on the reverse) oil on cardboard 38.5 х 47.7 cm Valentin Alexandrovich Yakovlev began his career in 1908 at the monthly literature and art magazine ‘Lebed’, where he collaborated with Leon Bakst. In 1910, together with the painter Ivan Zakharov, he founded an artists' society, the ‘Moscow Salon’. In 1919, he died of typhoid. Most of Yakovlev's works, produced during a short ten-year period of his creativity, have been lost or are in the private collections. But even during this short period, Yakovlev became the most consistent and expressive painter of the majority of Moscow artists, including those who were part of the ‘Moscow Salon’, which became very popular at the time. Yakovlev left a very impressive mark on the artistic life of pre-revolutionary Russia. Each work radiates the master's individuality, his particular perception of the world and a profound sense of harmony.