GONCHAROVA, Natalia

Natalia Goncharova lithograph as published in ‘Hermit’, 1913 (2)

Description

Natalia Goncharova lithograph as published in Pustynniki; Pustynnitsa. Dve poemy (Hermits; Hermitess: Two Poems), text by Kruchenykh. Published by G. L. Kuz’min and S. D. Dolinskii, Moscow in 1913, in a small edition size of only 480 copies, many of which have not survived due to the quality of the paper. The  sheet is quite acidic, discoloured and has become yellow; the corners have chipped and now appear rounded.There is manuscript text in ink in Russian on the reverse. Very fragile.

Sheet size: 7.25 x 5.75 inches  (183 x 145mm)

Housed in an a wooden frame in acid free card.

Item details

The album/ book titled Pustynniki; Pustynnitsa. Dve poemy (Hermits; Hermitess: Two Poems), was illustrated with sixteen lithographs, including cover, by Natalia Goncharova, the text by Aleksei Kruchenykh . Printed by S. Mukharski  and published by G. L. Kuz’min and S. D. Dolinskii in Moscow in 1913.

‘Natalia Goncharova’s lithographs are executed in a “primitivist” style based on traditional Russian icon painting that inspired numerous contemporary painters and printmakers.

The curious arrangement of the text and illustrations at right angles to each other suggests that the book may have been intended to be produced in a smaller format. Aleksei Kruchenykh’s Hermits consists of a pair of lengthy poems, consciously written in the style of Russian folk-poetry, which recounts life in a hermitage. The author evokes in surreal literary images the repressed blasphemous and erotic inclinations of the residents.’ Quote from ‘Arts Mia’ Web Site