$11,400
oil on canvas 40 x 20 in. (101.6 x 50.8 cm.) signed center right PROVENANCEPrivate Collection, U.S.A.Alexandra Nicolaevna Pregel was born on December 15, 1907 in Helsinki, Finland. Her parents had relocated to Finland early on as political exiles from the Czar's government. With the Revolution in 1917, Pregel's family moved back to Russia where here father Nikolai Avksentev became Minister of the Interior in the Kerensky government. After the Bolsheviks took power, in 1919, Pregel left Russia for France with her mother Maria and her stepfather Mikhail Tseitlin. Tseitlin was a famous intellectual, author, and poet, and his home in Paris became a gathering place for the Russian intellectual elite in exile. Regular visitors to their house included Natalia Goncharova, Leon Bakst, Mikhail Larionov, Marevna and others.Alexandra's friendship with Natalia Goncharova was particulary close. She had originally met Goncharova in 1912, and kept contact contact both as a student and friend to Goncharova throughout her life, until Goncharova's death in 1962. Pregel also studied painting at the Montparnasse studio of the Russian artists Vasily Shukhaev and Alexander Yakovlev beginning in 1921. During this time, many of the famous Montparnasse artists were also frequent visitors to the Tseitlin/Pregel household, including Diego Rivera, Amadeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, and Emile Antoine Bourdelle. Pregel exhibited in many important exhibitions in Paris throughout the 1930s, but after the Read more…
Auctioneer:
Shapiro Auctions
Date:
2008-04-17
