Porteuse de raisins

item details

NamePorteuse de raisins

ProductionNatalia Goncharova; painter; circa 1911; Russia

Classificationoil paintings

Materialsoil paint, canvas

Materials Summaryoil on canvas

DimensionsImage: 742mm (width), 915mm (height)

Registration Number1973-0003-1

Credit lineGift of Mme Larionov, Paris, 1973

Overview

This painting by Natalia Goncharova is possibly part of a series on grape harvesting that the artist painted around 1911. It is an excellent example of Neo-Primitivism, a style of painting used by Gontcharova and other artists in Russia in the early twentieth century. Neo-Primitivism is characterised by mock-naïve drawing, startling use of colour, non-naturalistic perspective, and distortion.

The Russian avant-garde
Goncharova and other members of the Russian avant-garde such as Kasimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin drew on the Neo-Primitivist style to illustrate their solidarity with Russian nationalism. Porteuse de raisins doesn't just make reference to contemporary developments in modern art. Artists like Goncharova looked to Russian icon painting, and the country's peasant heritage, with its colourful signboards, toys, and folk art, to create a modern art with specific political and cultural overtones.

Connections to New Zealand
The seven paintings by Goncharova in Te Papa's collection are the largest holding of the artist's work in Australasia. Porteuse de raisins is one of three paintings presented to the collection in 1973 by Alexandra Larionov, whom Goncharova's companion and fellow artist Mikhail Larionov married after Goncharova's death. Four other paintings were donated in 1983 by the National Art Gallery's representative in London, Mary Chamot, a Russian art scholar.