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| Image | Sale date | Auction house | Location | Sale name | Lot No. | Estimate | Price Sold | Condition | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nov 16, 2015 | Heritage Auctions | Dallas | American Art Signature Auction | 68001 | $****** - ****** | Very Good | Still Life with Cherries, Pitcher, and Bouquet |
paintings
61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in)
oil on canvas
The artist
Alexandra Fechin, wife of the above
Johnie (Mrs. H.S.) Griffin, Wichita Falls, Texas, and Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, acquired from the above
Private collection, New Mexico
By descent to the present owner, 1962.Nicolai Fechin's still lifes rarely come up for auction, and Still Life with Cherries, Pitcher, and Bouquet ranks among the finest of this genre from his Taos period, the highpoint of his career. Suffering from tuberculosis in New York, after immigrating there from Russia, Fechin moved to New Mexico with his family in 1926 and immediately blossomed in the warmer climate
he painted daily -- still lifes, landscapes, and the portraits of Pueblo Indians and Russian peasants for which he is best known -- and pushed his dramatic impastoed compositions toward even greater abstraction. Indeed, Still Life with Cherries, Pitcher, and Bouquet is at first glance a kaleidoscopic mosaic of color: turquoises, umbers, greens, and reds swirling atop one another and reflecting light. With closer inspection, forms begin to emerge: a tribal woven tapestry with geometric motifs hangs behind a shiny wooden table topped with a clump of cherries and crabapples, a toppled over metal pitcher, and a vase filled with white bellflowers and yellow roses and daisies. Fechin's wife, Alexandra (Tinka), originally owned the painting, keeping it after their divorce and eventually selling it to her good friend, Texan Johnie (Mrs. H.S.) Griffin, who summered in Ranchos de Taos and built an impressive collection of Fechin works. Little has been written about Fechin's still lifes, but this genre formed a substantive part of his Taos oeuvre. Fechin worked on these compositions in between his portrait sessions, and he utilized objects found around his home: vases massed with daisies, pansies, poppies, anemones, sunflowers, peonies, and lilies
assortments of pears, apples, grapes, and corn
kitchen vessels, like tea kettles, pitchers, and plates
and Indian artifacts, from kachina dolls and pottery to woven blankets. In their casualness -- loosely arranged flowers, spilled fruits, and textiles tossed aside -- Fechin's still lifes exude an intense human presence, as if someone has just walked away from the table, leaving behind an empty plate with breadcrumbs. In fact, he treated his still lifes like his portraits, employing similar techniques of glazing and applying paint with his thumb or a palette knife, and crystallizing the central representational elements out of an abstracted background of vigorous brushwork. The powerful combination of jewel colors, active lines, and humanness in Fechin's still lifes imbues them with them with a heightened emotion not often found in the genre.
