ALEXEI ALEXEIEVICH HARLAMOFF
Saratov 1840 - 1925 Paris
Ref: CC 211
Girl with a white veil
Signed lower right: Harlamoff
Oil on canvas: 26 x 20 in / 66 x 50.8 cm
Frame size: 35 x 28 in / 88.9 x 71.1 cm
Provenance :
John Eastman, New York
George Vigneroux
Private collection, Palm Beach
Sotheby’s New York, 24th October 1996, lot 134;
Richard Green, London;
private collection, USA
Literature:
Olga Sugrobova-Roth and Eckart Lingenauber, Alexei Harlamoff: Catalogue Raisonné, Edition A. Harlamoff, Dusseldorf 2007, no.31, p.112, illus. p.114, pl.22
Girl with a white veil is a detailed portrait of one of the artist’s favourite sitters, her youthful complexion illuminated by the bright mantle of delicate lace. Harlamoff’s skilful execution of the child’s features is enlivened by the broader, more impressionistic style with which he depicts her golden hair, clothes and the background, adding vitality to the image while simultaneously creating a foil for the sitter’s luminous skin. Her gesture is as charming as her appearance, with hands held over her heart, partly concealed by the transparent shawl.
Alexei Alexiwicz Harlamoff was born at Saratov, Russia in 1849. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg and won a gold medal and a travel scholarship in 1868 for his painting The Return of the Prodigal Son. This enabled him to go to Paris, where he remained, working with the great portrait painter and teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts Léon Bonnat (1834-1922). His work was exhibited in the Russian section of the Décennale exhibition of art produced between 1889 and 1900 which was part of the World's Fair held in Paris in 1900.
In his early career, he painted many genre and religious subjects, learning his skills by copying Old Master paintings such as Rembrandt's Anatomy Lesson in the Maritshuis in The Hague. He also became a respected portrait painter, with such important sitters as Tsar Alexander II and Prince Demidoff. Perhaps his most beloved subjects were informal portraits of peasant girls. These sitters were painted for their beauty and innocence rather than their fame. Harlamoff eloquently evoked the symbolism of the flower representing the short-lived innocence of youth so popular with artists of the end of the nineteenth century, while capturing a uniquely Russian ambience in the details of dress and facial features.
Harlamoff was also interested in the range of emotions within facial expressions; his The young model with her charming, contemplative gaze is an excellent example. It was probably the sweet, smiling expressions of his Children playing with Flowers that drew the admiration of Queen Victoria when she saw it in the Glasgow International Exhibition in 1888. The work of Harlamoff is represented in the Alexander III Museum in St Petersburg, the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow and in the Brobinksi Collection.
