Natalia Gontcharova

1881Tula, Russia | 1962Paris, France
Informations

Russian painter and decorator.

Born into a family of minor Russian nobility, Natalia Gontcharova was admitted in 1898 to the School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in Moscow, where she trained with the sculptor Paul Troubetzkoï, a disciple of Auguste Rodin. She met her husband, the painter Mikhail Larionov, and then became a student of impressionist Konstantin Korovin. Her early work reflects her integration of Impressionism, Fauvism and the Nabis into her work. Meanwhile, she cultivated her interest in Russian folk art, notably icons and loubki. In Moscow in 1910, along with Mr. Larionov, she participated in founding the Jack of Diamonds group that claimed the influences of Paul Cézanne, the Fauves and post-Impressionism, and organized exhibitions of painters of the Russian or French avant-garde. But she criticized the Jack of Diamonds group for its subservience to French painting, and advocated for an inspiration more oriented toward Russian folk art. For this reason, in 1912, she and her husband created The Donkey Tail group—inspired by Russian and Oriental neo-primitivism—and put on a scandalous exhibition in Moscow. In 1913, inspired by Cubism and Italian Futurism, M. Larionov published the founding manifesto of the “Rayonist” (loutchizm) movement, which aims to make visible the vibrations of an object, its material “radiation”, which on the canvas takes the shape of colored rays.

In 1913-1914, the couple showed “rayonnist” works in Paris as part of a large exhibition organized by the Paul Guillaume gallery. Serge Diaghilev proposed that the couple create sets, costumes, posters and programs for the famous Ballets Russes. After the disappearance of the director of the Russian troupe, Goncharova continued painting, and increased her exhibitions: in 1920 at the International Contemporary Art Exhibition in Geneva, in 1922 at the Kingore Gallery in New York, while also contributing regularly to the Salon des Tuileries and the Paris Salon des Indépendents. Throughout the 1930s, the couple’s work was gradually forgotten.  They received renewed attention only thanks to a retrospectives of Sergei Diaghilev. In 1961, a large exhibition held in London dedicated to Goncharova and Larionov’s oeuvre gave the artist her proper place in the historiography of Russian avant-garde.

Ada Ackerman

Translated from French by Emily Freeman.

From the Dictionnaire universel des créatrices
© 2013 Des femmes – Antoinette Fouque
© Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions
Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Portrait de l’artiste Mikhail Larionov et son commandant de peloton, 1911, oil on canvas, © FineArtImages/Leemage, © ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Autoportrait avec des lys jaunes, 1907, © FineArtImages/Leemage, © ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Les moissonneurs, 1911, © FineArtImages/Leemage, © ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, La dame au chapeau rouge, 1910, © FineArtImages/Leemage, © ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Le cycliste, 1913, oil on canvas, 79 x 105 cm, © FineArtImages/Leemage, © ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, La dame au chapeau, 1916-1920, oil on canva, 90 x 66 cm, © SuperStock/Leemage, ©ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Cats, 1913, oil on canvas, 85 × 85 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, ©ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Costume design for Odette in Swan Lake, ca. 1948, gouache and graphite on paper, 36.5 x 22.9 cm, McNay Art Museum, ©ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Khorovod (Russian Circle Dance), 1910, oil on canvas, 100 x 133 cm, Serpukhov Museum of Art and History, ©ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Peacock in the bright sun, 1911, oil on canvas, 144 x 129 cm, State Tretyakov Gallery, ©ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Rabbi with cat, ca. 1912, oil on canvas, 100.2 x 92 cm, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, ©ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, The Forest, 1913, watercolor on paper, 40.8 x 29.9 cm, MoMA, ©ADAGP, Paris

Natalia Gontcharova — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Natalia Gontcharova, Study for a Section of Curtain of Le coq d’or, 1913-1914, graphite and opaque watercolor on paper mounted on Whatman board, 37.8 x 53.8 cm, Fine Arts Museums, ©ADAGP, Paris

Explore
Linked themes
Artists
Discover other artists

Archives
of Women Artists
Research
& Exhibitions

Facebook - AWARE Twitter - AWARE Instagram - AWARE
Villa Vassilieff - 21, avenue du Maine 75015 Paris (France) — info[at]aware-art[.]org — +33 (0)1 55 26 90 29