Nicolas KALMAKOFF (1873-1955) Nicolas KALMAKOV ( 1873-1955) Death of Adonis 1924 Oil on panel signed with monogram lower right 43 x 70 cm In the blaze of a twilight autumn, under a portico, lies on a marble bed, supple emaciated body, carmine nipple, white as chalk, mane of fire, the beautiful dying Adonis extricating himself from his crimson shroud. Accompanied by her handmaidens, elegant, indifferent vestals, naked beneath their light gauze dresses, Aphrodite prepares to pour the magic nectar to revive the body that is yet to serve her. In the face of Adonis, otherwise haloed, we find Kalmakoff's features in the many often transvestite self-portraits he left; particularly the one in which he depicts himself as an equivo-that of Saint John the Baptist, 1921. Our painting, perhaps the most important of Kalmakoff's oeuvre, synthesizes the artist's fantastic, aesthetic, narcissistic, masochistic and anguished universe in one magnificent painting. Bibliography Reproduced on a double-page spread in Kalmakoff l'Ange de l'Abîme. Musée de la Seita 1986 Provenance : Georges Martin du Nord Collection