FALK, ROBERT (1886–1958) Lot n° 8

◎§ A House Behind a Wall, Outskirts of Paris. Oil on canvas, 60 by 74 cm. Provenance: Private collection, Russia. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the expert Yu. Chaikina. Authenticity of the work has also been confirmed by the expert I. Shibanova. Exhibited: Robert Falk, Tsentralnyi dom rabotnikov iskusstv, Moscow, Autumn 1939, No. 27. Literature: D. Sarabianov, Yu. Didenko (eds), Zhivopis Roberta Falka. Polnyi katalog proizvedenii, Moscow, Galereia Elizium, 2006, p. 588, No. 832, illustrated and listed. Robert Falk is rightly regarded as one of the best Russian colourists of the 20th century. His original technique of applying paint in several thick layers to create an unusual shimmering effect imparts a fascinating musical resonance to his pictures. A House Behind a Wall, Outskirts of Paris was painted in 1934 during the Falk’s sojourn in France (1928–1937) which was one of the most fruitful periods of his career. It is particularly at this time that the artist made full use of the discoveries of the Post-Impressionists, above all Cézanne, by thoroughly exploring the potential of a patch of colour and its interaction with the overall chromatic structure of a picture. Falk was fond of motifs which were at first sight unprepossessing, and he consistently sought hidden beauty in external unattractiveness, beauty recognisable only by a perceptive eye. Falk loved such places and chose them specially – inconspicuous, quietly contemplative spots which one might assume the artist had discovered totally by chance. Trees were always one of Falk’s favourite landscape motifs. He painted them throughout his life – in his early Jack of Diamonds period, later when strolling the never-ending Paris boulevards and finally for many years after he returned to Soviet Russia. A House Behind a Wall, On the Outskirts of Paris is known to have been exhibited in Falk’s solo exhibition held at the Central House of the Arts in 1939 in Moscow which showcased works from his time in France. The present lot as illustrated in the 2006 catalogue raisonne.