(Charkov 1866–1928 Leningrad) Scene from Normandy, signed in Cyrillic script, on the reverse label of the St. Petersburg framing and furniture studio of Semen Abrosimov, oil on canvas, 76 x 89 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Private property Vienna, purchased by the father of the current owner in Leningrad in the 1970s.

This work fascinates by its power, the product of the formidable inner tension of the tersely interpretated forms and of the energetic brushstrokes. The light on the North Sea coast highlights the shapes, accentuates the drama in the outlines of the houses, figures and in the movement of the clouds; this is the Normandy of Viktor Zarubin. An exceptional artist within the Russian school of painting, over two decades he created a Normandy cycle; the strength and emotion of these paintings make them unique within the great tradition of representations of Normandy.
Zarubin went to Paris in 1893 where he attended the Academy Julian until 1896. He learned to love and paint Brittany and Normandy from his French and American colleagues as well as from the Russia artists whose colony in Normandy had been in existence since the 1860s. From this time onwards his passion was divided between the north coast of France and the Ukranian steppe.
Zarubin was painting his principal subjects as early as the 1890s, though he only later perfected his style. After becoming acquainted in France with the most recent artistic movements of Post-Impressionism, Symbolism and the Cloisonnism of the group of artists around Paul Gaugin in Pont-Aven, on returning to St.Petersburg he became a student of the great Russian landscape painter Archip Kuindzhi. This painter imparted to his followers the romantic-poetic notion of nature and the significance of lighting effects in portraying the subject of a picture. Zarubin took part in several exhibitions. In 1909 he became a regular member of the Academy, then Secretary of the Society for the Advancement of Art in St. Petersburg. He created his best works in the 1910s when he again sojourned in France for a longer period.
Zarubin was fascinated by the emotional subject of women waiting on the coast for their men and returned to this theme frequently. As Zarubin always signed but rarely dated his work, only the quality of the execution and the development of his individual style make dating possible. The particularly high quality of the work suggests it was executed in the 1910s.
The somewhat earlier frame made by the famous framing and furniture-making workshop of Semen Abrosimov in St. Petersburg was adapted to fit the size of the picture.

We are grateful to Dr. Olga Sugrobova-Roth for her assistance in cataloguing this work.