What Do You See? The Collection of Sidney Rothberg, Part III

Provenance:

Peter H. Deitsch, New York, New York.

Makler Gallery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Christie's East, New York, sale of February 7, 1984, lot 26.

Acquired directly from the above sale.

Lot Note:

For other works by the artist in this sale, please see Lots 19, 21, 35, 73, 75 and 187.

Lot Essay:

Early in 1923, Dr. Albert C. Barnes acquired several paintings by young immigrant artists through the dealer Paul Guillaume, whom he had appointed as his “foreign secretary.” Among these were works by Chaïm Soutine and Alexis Gritchenko, a refugee from the recently dissolved Russian Empire.

The present work dates from Gritchenko’s extended travels in the Peloponnese and Crete, where he documented numerous prehistoric sites such as Mistra, Epidaurus, Sparta, and Mycenae—the legendary capital of King Agamemnon depicted here.

Gritchenko’s art, which masterfully blends Byzantine, Italian, and Modern influences, held special significance for Dr. Barnes and his education director, Violette de Mazia. She regarded his paintings as invaluable teaching tools and ideal exemplars for Dr. Barnes’s vision of exhibiting old and modern art side-by-side. Such a vision passed down to Sidney Rothberg, who playfully displayed Gritchenko next to his other works by Renoir, Vuillard or Daumier.