225 - Natalia GONTCHAROVA (1881–1962)

Natalia GONTCHAROVA (1881–1962) Album of lithographs, *Mystical Images of War*. Published by V. N. Kachine, printed by the I. N. Kushnerev & Co. Association, Moscow, 1914. The album includes: a title page, a list of illustrations, and 14 lithographs: Saint George Slaying the Dragon; The White Eagle; The English Lion; The French Rooster; The Virgin on the Beast; Peresvet and Oslabia; Archangel Michael; Vision; The Christian Army; Angels and Airplanes; The Doomed City; The Pale Horse; Mass Grave; Alexander Nevsky. Lithographs, 36.6 × 27.4 cm (each sheet). Original cardboard portfolio, A.B.E. (signs of wear, yellowing, soiling). The album of original lithographs “Mystical Images of War,” created in 1914, marks the culmination of the Russian period in Natalia Goncharova’s work. It constitutes one of the artist’s most important and rarest graphic series. Comprising fourteen lithographs dedicated to World War I, the series is intimately linked to Goncharova’s personal fate: her close companion and collaborator, the painter Mikhail Larionov, was drafted in August 1914. Seriously wounded a few months later, he spent a long period convalescing before finally being demobilized. In “Mystical Images of War,” the Symbolist origins of Goncharova’s Neoprimitivism are expressed with exceptional force. The artist draws both on traditional Russian imagery and on the contemporary realities of the conflict to craft a deeply symbolic vision permeated by apocalyptic forebodings. Her visual language draws inspiration from ancient Russian iconography, folk prints (lubki), as well as posters, placards, and postcards of her time. The first motif in the series appears on a small engraved sheet attached to the portfolio: an angel armed with a sword. In ancient Russian iconography, this attribute traditionally refers to the Archangel Michael. In Goncharova’s rendering, the figure’s serenity and monumental power are combined with an inner expressive tension. The archangel embodies both the image of the “Indestructible Wall,” inherited from the Russian iconographic tradition, and that of the fiery cherub guarding the entrance to the earthly paradise. As researcher Natalia Gourianova has pointed out, Russian graphic art from 1914–1916 includes very few works directly inspired by the war and capable of offering such a profound and symbolic interpretation of it. According to her, “Mystical Images of War” constitutes a unique artistic phenomenon, virtually unparalleled in Russian or Western art, or even in Goncharova’s own oeuvre. This cycle represents, in essence, the artist’s last major creation produced in Russia and stands as the crowning achievement of her Russian period. Extremely rare both bibliographically and artistically, “Mystical Images of War” is an exceptional collection that very rarely appears on the market. NATALYA GONCHAROVA (1881‒1962) Album of lithographs “Mystical Images of War.” Published by V. N. Kashin, printed by I. N. Kushnerev & Co., Moscow, 1914. The folder includes: a title page, a page listing the illustrations, and 14 lithographs: St. George the Victorious; The White Eagle; The English Lion; The French Rooster; The Virgin on the Beast; Peresvet and Oslyabya; Archangel Michael; The Vision; The Christ-Loving Host; Angels and Airplanes; The Doomed City; The Horse Bled; The Mass Grave; Alexander Nevsky. Lithographs, 36.6 × 27.4 cm (each sheet). Original cardboard folder (condition: yellowing, soiling, wear at the folds). The culmination of Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova’s Russian creative period was the 1914 album of original lithographs *Mystical Images of War*—one of the artist’s most significant and rare graphic series. The album includes 14 lithographs united by the theme of World War I, the start of which—in 1914—is directly linked to Goncharova’s personal life: her close friend