Grigori Efimovich Gluckmann
(Russian/California, 1898-1973)

"Great Expectations"

oil on wood panel
signed lower right, titled on "Dalzell Hatfield Galleries, Los Angeles" label en verso.
Framed.
22-1/2" x 24", framed 32" x 33-1/2"

Provenance: Bonhams, San Francisco, California, June 15, 1995, lot 4296; Christie's, New York, New York, April 18, 2007, lot 102.

Notes: An emigre several times over, Gluckmann was born in Vitebsk, Belarus (then part of Russia), a contemporary of that town's most famous son, Marc Chagall. He enrolled at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, studying for several years under Abram Arkhipov (1862-1930), before fleeing to Berlin during the Russian Revolution. He soon made his way to Paris, where he began to exhibit in earnest - at the Galerie Druet, Galerie Charpentier, Salon d'Automne, amongst numerous others. In 1941 he fled once again, this time to New York to escape the Nazis. He eventually permanently settled in Los Angeles.

Gluckmann painted a variety of subjects, from the almost obligatory atmospheric Parisian street scenes, to coy nudes and voluptuous still lives, but it was his luminous, glowing depictions of ballerinas which captured the attention and admiration of critics and collectors alike. Employing the laborious technique espoused at the Moscow School of Art, Gluckmann used numerous layers of paint - allowing each layer to dry completely before the application of the next. This resulted in works with an intense depth of color. The success of this technique is evident in the work presented here, where the various textures of the fabrics - the layers of tulle of the skirt, the satin of the shoes, the silk of the ribbons - are clearly delineated.

In generally very good condition with no signs of past restorations. Some toning of the varnish, pin-size loss of paint to lower center (between her legs). Some darker colors fluoresce under UV light but appears to be hand of the artist. Carved frame with surface marks, nicks and abrasions.