Ivan CHOULTSE (1874-1939) [RUSSIA/FRANCE] - Lot 8

Ivan CHOULTSE (1874-1939) [RUSSIA/FRANCE] Young woman in a wheat field at sunset, 1923 Oil on canvas. Signed and dated lower right. Exhibition labels on back of work bearing no. 28 and 29. 54 x 65 cm (Rubbing at edge of frame) In the early years of the 20th century, Choultsé, a "magician of light", continued the poetic tradition of Russian landscape painting from the second half of the 19th century, refuting the proposals of the avant-gardes. Some Russian landscape painters had been influenced in the 19th century by the Swiss painter Alexandre Calame. Choultsé combines the two traditions. The power and grandeur of nature do not exclude the careful, realistic treatment of its components: we can admire the original brushwork that draws the wheat by scraping away the material, and the light that the painter brings to life by letting the preparation appear in the foliage. The vast space of the wheat field is crowned by a sky dotted with immense clouds. The painter gives us a foretaste of a bountiful harvest, while the sturdy, majestic oak, at the edge of a dense wood in the distance, asserts the triumph of a powerful, fertile nature.