Condition Report: Fine, harmonious overall appearance. The canvas is not relined and mounted on the original stretcher. The margins in places with scuff marks; the left margin with minor paint losses. On the the picture surface runs a fine, stable web of craquelure. Ultraviolet light reveals no retouchings or repairs
Nikolai Wassilieff was born in St. Petersburg, studied at the local academy and moved to Weimar in 1921 to study at the Bauhaus, presumably under Wassily Kandinsky, who, at the time, taught wall painting, color theory and form theory there. Wassilieff stayed there for about two years before moving to Berlin in September 1922. Here, he painted the enigmatic ‘Nordic Landscape’ in shadowless dreamy light. He quickly became a member of the November Group, participating in their exhibitions until 1931. In the late 1930s, he moved to Sweden, where he remained until his death. The characteristic wooden houses of his Russian homeland are one of his recurring motifs, also used as a background in other paintings. As is also done in our painting, the artist often places them in a deserted landscape with a peculiar melancholic atmosphere. With paintings like this, Nikolai Wassilieff claims his very own place in the magical realism of the first half of the 20th century. (MS)
Oil on Hessian. 30,5 × 32 cm
(12 × 12 ⅝ in.). Signed lower right: N. Wassilieff. Signed in pencil and dated in blue chalk on the stretcher: NicolAi WASSilieff [sic!] 1927. There also a label with the printed number: 285. Craquelure. [3039] Framed
Condition Report: Fine, harmonious overall appearance. The canvas is not relined and mounted on the original stretcher. The margins in places with scuff marks; the left margin with minor paint losses. On the the picture surface runs a fine, stable web of craquelure. Ultraviolet light reveals no retouchings or repairs
Nikolai Wassilieff was born in St. Petersburg, studied at the local academy and moved to Weimar in 1921 to study at the Bauhaus, presumably under Wassily Kandinsky, who, at the time, taught wall painting, color theory and form theory there. Wassilieff stayed there for about two years before moving to Berlin in September 1922. Here, he painted the enigmatic ‘Nordic Landscape’ in shadowless dreamy light. He quickly became a member of the November Group, participating in their exhibitions until 1931. In the late 1930s, he moved to Sweden, where he remained until his death. The characteristic wooden houses of his Russian homeland are one of his recurring motifs, also used as a background in other paintings. As is also done in our painting, the artist often places them in a deserted landscape with a peculiar melancholic atmosphere. With paintings like this, Nikolai Wassilieff claims his very own place in the magical realism of the first half of the 20th century. (MS)
