Gouache on paper. Featuring a cnstructivist portrait of a seated man. Signed BE Tatlin on the lower right corner. Attributed to Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1956, Russian). 29.5 x 20.5 cm (11.75 x 8 in). PROVENANCE: Southern Ontario estate

Vladimir Tatlin (1885-1956) was a Russian artist who played a pivotal role in the utopian dictates of the Constructivist movement. He is best known for his radical melding of architecture and sculptural form, as evinced in his work Monument to the Third International (1919–1920). “In the squares and in the streets we are placing our work convinced that art must not remain a sanctuary for the idle, a consolation for the weary, and a justification for the lazy,” he once proclaimed. “Art should attend us everywhere that life flows and acts.” Born on December 28, 1885 in Moscow, Russia, he was raised in the Ukraine and trained as an icon painter. While studying under Aleksey Afanas’ev at the Penza School of Art in Moscow, Tatlin befriended a number of young avant-garde artists of the time, including Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov. In 1913, the artist traveled to Paris where he visited the studio of Pablo Picasso, whose works led Tatlin towards a fascination with collage and sculptural assemblage. Despite being largely apolitical prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, afterward Lenin came to power the artist and his peers spearheaded societal concerns with their work. Because of the restraints on art enacted by Stalin during the 1930s, all Soviet artists including Tatlin and Kazimir Malevich, were forced back into more traditional aesthetics. He died on May 31, 1953 in Moscow, Russia. Today, Tatlin’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, and the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow.

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American, 19th century : This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).