Piotr Petrovitch Konchalovsky (1876-1956) - Lilac With White Doily

Russian painter Piotr Petrovitch Konchalovsky studied at the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts and became a leading member of the Russian Post-Impressionist art movement. Konchalovsky is known for his luminous landscapes, vibrant still lifes and expressive portraits. His style is influenced by French Impressionism, but he has also incorporated elements of traditional Russian art. Participating in numerous exhibitions throughout Russia and abroad, he leaves behind a prolific body of work. 

Also known as the Moscow Cézanniste, Konchalovsky was a founding member of the Knave of Diamonds group, also known as the Valet de carreau. This project was a circle of Russian avant-garde artists, strongly influenced by French styles, who sought “to unite Cézanne's stylistic system”. with the primitive traditions of folk art, Russian lubok (folk prints) and shopkeepers' signs. 

Drawing on the achievements of Cézanne, and sometimes Matisse, these artists restored mass, volume, color and three-dimensional form to objects, as Dmitry Sarabyanov notes: “Hence their interest in still life, which plays an important role in their work, and has taken on a significance it had not previously had in the history of Russian art...”

Our work captures the delicacy and beauty of lilac flowers in Kontchalovsky's characteristic impressionist style. It testifies to his mastery of pictorial technique and his ability to convey emotion through his works. The artist was interested in depicting nature and everyday objects, which he painted with particular sensitivity. Here, lilacs offer an attractive color palette and an interesting texture to explore. 

“It's impossible to paint a flower with simplistic brushstrokes... a flower needs to be studied as deeply as anything else. Flowers can teach artists a lot: to fully understand the structure of a rose requires no less work than to understand a human face. There's everything in a single flower that exists in nature, albeit in a more and more complex form, and you have to examine each flower, especially a lilac or a bunch of wildflowers, or even a whole grove until you can grasp the logic of its construction... I paint them like a musician paints his scales. After two hours of regular work, something changes in my mind, and the flowers somehow become sounds... It's the greatest exercise for a painter.”

PP Konchalovsky, quoted in VA Nikol'skii, Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky, Moscow, 1936, p. 112.