Shapiro Auctions
Los 97
ALESSIO ISSUPOFF (RUSSIAN 1889-1957)The Bathers, oil on board 60 x 45 cm (23 5/8 x 17 ¾ in.)signed lower rightLOT NOTES: One of Russia’s most celebrated impressionist painters, Alessio Issupoff’s career traversed the continents, with works executed in Central Asia as well as Europe. As a student at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Issupoff had some of Russia’s greatest artistic luminaries as teachers and mentors, including Apollinary Vasnetsov, Valentin Serov and Konstantin Korovin. Upon graduating in 1912, Issupoff traveled to Samarkand and created the orientalist scenes and landscapes that are now associated with the early period of his career. Briefly returning to Moscow in 1921, the artist was faced with financial troubles that led him to focus on commissioned portraits of state officials. As a way of escaping the stifling Soviet atmosphere as well as improving his failing health, Issupoff left for Italy in 1926. There his work met with a favorable reception, allowing him to have his first solo-exhibition in Rome in 1926 before exhibiting at the Venice Biennale shortly thereafter. With the move to Italy came a greater freedom of expression, yet his works became imbued with a sense of nostalgia for the pre-Revolutionary Russia of his childhood. A certain timelessness can be felt in the present painting depicting two young women near a forested bathing spot. There is quietness to the composition that allows the view to observe the delicate play of light on the flesh of the figures from a tranquil distance, removed from a directly recognizable time or space.
