MARIE VOROBIEFF MAREVNA (RUSSIAN 1892 - 1984),
REVOLUTION
oil on board, signed and dated 1970
67cm x 90cm
Framed.
Provenance: This painting was gifted to Mrs Nina Barnes of Ainsdale Road, Ealing, London by the artist. Mrs Barnes used the professional name of Nina Walker and was Chorus Master, Royal Choral Society, Repetiteuse and Chorus Master at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Recitalist with Caballe. Nina Barnes and Morevna became friends through their attendance at Ealing Abbey which they both lived close to. Nina Barnes passed away in November 2018.
Notes: Born Marie Bronislava Vorobyeva-Stebelska (Мария Брониславовна Воробьёва-Стебельская) in Cheboksary, Russia. Marevna is internationally known for convincingly combining elements of cubism (called by her "Dimensionalism") with pointillism and – through the use of the Golden Ratio for laying out paintings – structure. She has been accredited with being the first female cubist painter. Though she lived the greater part of her life abroad – her formative years as a cubist painter in France and her mature years in England – she is usually referred to as a "Russian painter". In 1910 she went to Moscow to study at the Stroganov Art Academy, but in the following year left for Italy. On the island of Capri she was introduced to Maxim Gorki who nicknamed her "Marevna" (after a Russian fairy sea princess). She adopted the nickname and was widely known as Marevna for the rest of her life. A petite blue-eyed blonde, she was said not to have been a conventional beauty; but an outgoing nature paired with the proverbial depth of the Russian soul seems to have given her a charm which made her "special" to all who knew her. She moved to Paris in 1912 as an aspiring twenty year old. It was there that she became friends with some of the greatest artists and writers of the early twentieth century then resident in Montparnasse and especially at La Ruche, among them were Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Marc Chagall , Jean Cocteau, Ilya Ehrenburg, Max Jacob, Moise Kisling, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine. It was while a resident of La Ruche that Marevna met the gifted Mexican cubist and later muralist artist Diego Rivera. Diego Rivera was nearly 30 at the time and at the zenith of his cubist phase, having already exhibited his works at three exhibitions. Marevna herself discovered cubism as an eminently suited vehicle for her own talent. Rivera was a known womanizer of fiery temper and began a relationship with Marevna while he was still in a common-law marriage with the Russian artist Angelina Beloff who was pregnant with Rivera's son. Despite Diego Rivera's assurances of his love for Marevna, their relationship ended soon after the birth on 13 November 1919 in Paris of their daughter Marika. It's probable that Marevna never fully recovered from the break up of her relationship with Rivera and it's reported that after her death her ashes were laid in the Rivera mausoleum in Mexico. Marevna exhibited widely in France and Europe throughout her career, as well as at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1968; and more recently a major retrospective was held at the Russian State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, in 2004. A small collection of her work is held at Athelhampton House in Dorset where she lived with her daughter during the 1950’s. Her work is also in several museums including a substantial collection at the Musée Petits Palais in Geneva. When her daughter's marriage ended Marevna moved to the London suburb of Ealing with her daughter and two grandsons. A substantial number of her paintings were bought by international collector Oscar Ghez in 1967. Marevna died in London on 4th May 1984. Her work can command high prices at auction including Nu Allongé (1930), at Aguttes, Paris lot 34 19/6/2009 sold for 266,966 EUR (premium) and Hasidic Dance During Chanukah Celebration (1970), at Sotheby's, New York lot 125 26/4/2006 sold for 228,000 USD (premium).