Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957)
"Burial of the Acrobat"
watercolor and gouache on board
1929
45,8 x 55,8 cm
signed and dated upper right: "P. Tchelitchew 29"
Provenance:
“Burial of the Acrobat” was formerly in the collection of art historian Norman Schlenoff (1915-1983), author of “Art in the Modern World” (1965) and other works.
Exhibition History:
New York, Huntington Hartford Gallery of Modern Art, 1964, no. 50.
Commentary:
Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957), the Russian-born modernist artist, lived in Berlin (1921-23) and Paris (1923-34), before relocating to New York City, where he spent most of the remainder of his life. Famed for his masterpiece, “Hide-and-Seek,” 1940-42, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Tchelitchew is usually assigned to the Surrealist school. But some of his early works, such as “Burial of the Acrobat,” from his Paris period, are Neo-romantic or Symbolist in style. And in the view of some observers, “Burial of the Acrobat” reveals the influence of somber Blue-Period (1901-04) Picasso, in subject and tone as well as palette.
The Daulton Collection also owns a related pencil drawing by Tchelitchew, “Study for Fallen Acrobat,” 1929:
