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Description

Boris Grigoriev (Russian, 1886-1939)
Portrait of Gladys Roosevelt Dick, circa 1922
Oil on canvas
32-1/2 x 22-1/4 inches (82.5 x 56.5 cm) (work)
34-1/4 x 24-1/2 inches (86.9 x 62.2 cm) (framed)
Signed Boris Grigoriev / NY lower right

PROVENANCE:
Boris Grigoriev;
Gladys Roosevelt Dick, commissioned from the artist 1923;
Jean Schermerhorn Roosevelt, inherited from the above, 1926;
Thence by descent.

EXHIBITED:
Paintings and Drawings by Boris Grigoriev, New Gallery, November 18–December 15, 1923, Cat. No. 12;
Paintings and Drawings by Boris Grigoriev, Worcester Museum of Art, January 4–February 3, 1924, Cat. No. 20;
Exhibition of Paintings – Loan Exhibition from the collection of Gladys R. Dick, G.R.D. Studio, April 16–28, 1928 (also, June, July, and August) as "Portrait."

LITERATURE:
Exhibition Catalogue: Paintings and Drawings by Boris Grigoriev (New Gallery, November 18–December 15, 1923), Cat. No. 12;
Exhibition Catalogue: Paintings and Drawings by Boris Grigoriev, Worcester Museum of Art, January 4–February 3, 1924, Cat. No. 20.



Portrait of Mrs. Fairman Dick. 1923.

Boris Dmitrievich Grigoriev painted the Portrait of Mrs. Fairman Dick in 1923 during his first visit to the United States. He arrived in New York on the steamship Paris on October 20 of that year. By then, his paintings and drawings were already well known to the American public, thanks to several exhibitions: Paintings and Drawings by Boris Grigoriev at the Worcester Art Museum (January 2–14, 1923); another at the New Gallery in New York (April 6–28, 1923); and the major Exhibition of Russian Painting and Sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum (January 23–February 28, 1923). These exhibitions were organized through the efforts of the artist and gallerist James Rosenberg, the critic Christian Brinton, and other sympathetic patrons.

Grigoriev had long dreamed of visiting the United States—the homeland of his mother—and beginning in 1923 he would return there frequently during the autumn and winter months. The Portrait of Mrs. Fairman Dick was likely among the first commissions he received in New York and was completed with remarkable speed. On November 18, 1923, the New York Russian-language newspaper Russkii Golos reported on the eve of his exhibition:

"Today at 4 o'clock at the New Gallery, 600 Madison Avenue, opens the exhibition of paintings by the famous Russian artist Boris Grigoriev. Present at the opening will be actors of the Moscow Art Theatre—Knipper, Moskvin, Kachalov, and Stanislavsky among them. The secretary of the exhibition committee, Mrs. Roosevelt-Dick, is herself portrayed by Grigoriev in a painting for which the artist received two thousand dollars. One must acknowledge the fertility of B. D. Grigoriev's talent: in two weeks he completed five portraits and two landscapes. All the finished canvases have been sold."

The Portrait of Mrs. Fairman Dick reveals the artist's acute attention to the sitter's inner state—collected yet faintly anxious—conveyed through the contrast between the vivid red of her dress and the subdued olive background, deepened by the black aperture of an archway. A heavy mass of hair, finely modeled features, and dark, sorrowful eyes lend the figure a grave, introspective quality. The unexpectedly long and delicate neck heightens the tension of the composition. The half-length figure is confined within the narrow vertical bounds of the canvas; her head nearly touches the upper edge, and the close, muted background denies any spatial release. Beneath the portrait's neoclassical composure, a subtle fracture of emotion emerges—a quiet strain between dignity and vulnerability.

Together with the painted and drawn portraits of Lydia Koreneva, the Portrait of Mrs. Fairman Dick was shown at Grigoriev's second New York solo exhibition, Paintings and Drawings by Boris Grigoriev (New Gallery, November 18–December 15, 1923). The catalogue listed Lydia Koreneva as Lise in The Brothers Karamazov (no. 4), Mrs. Fairman Dick (no. 12), and the corresponding drawing (no. 5). The same group of works was later presented almost in its entirety at the Worcester Art Museum (January 4–February 3, 1924), where the catalogue again recorded Lydia Koreneva as Liza in "The Brothers Karamazov" (no. 17) and Mrs. Fairman Dick (no. 20).

Both catalogues were introduced by Christian Brinton, who observed:

"Whatever its theme, the outstanding feature of Grigoriev's work is its sturdy, forthright nationalism. Whilst not a few among his compatriots are more West European than Slavic in their artistic affiliations, Boris Grigoriev remains resolutely Russ."

This "Russianness," noted by Brinton, indeed remained the defining quality of Grigoriev's art throughout the first half of the 1920s—the period during which he created all his rediscovered masterpieces across various thematic veins. Between November 1922 and June 1923 alone, the New Gallery sold seven paintings and ten drawings by the artist (New Pictures and the New Gallery, 1923, p. 11).

The portraits of Lydia Koreneva and Mrs. Fairman Dick stand among Grigoriev's finest achievements in portraiture, exemplifying the distinctive synthesis of neoclassical structure and expressionist intensity that marked his painting of the early 1920s.

Heritage Auctions is grateful to Dr. Tamara Alexandrovna Galeeva for her research and note on this lot.


Estimate: $80,000 - $120,000.

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