Irène KLESTOVA (Saratov 1908- Paris 1989) Lot n° 11

Erotic nude Watercolor on paper 43 x 89 cm Signed lower right "Irène Klestova On the back, on the paper, the handwritten indications of the artist "Irène Klestova atelier 7 impasse du Rouet Paris 14". Irene Klestova is a Russian painter born in 1907 in Saratov. She completed her artistic training in a private school in Moscow under the direction of Fedor Ivanovich Rerberg. In 1925, the painter left Russia during the Bolshevik revolution, and entered the Academy of Arts in Rome, where she met the painter Lev Tchistovsky who became her husband. In 1926 the couple arrived in Paris in the Montparnasse district. In the 1930s, Irene Klestova left Paris for the south of France in Cénevières, where she began to cultivate orchids, which she used as a model. Irene Klestova is particularly interested in the nude genre. She executes with a fine line the outline of the body which rests most often on a couch or a bed whose sheets contrast with the whiteness of the skin. The poses of the models swing between a waking rest and erotic attitudes. Irene Klestova exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon de Meudon (1935), the Salon du Printemps and the Salon de l'Art Libre (1947, 1948). His works are also presented in galleries in England and the United States. The Musée des Beaux-Arts of Villefranche de Rouergue, Sarato, and the Château de Cénevières hold works by the artist in their collections. (Slightly insolated)