Hebe and Eagle oil painting on artist cardboard depicting a nude female with eagle titled "Hebe and the Eagle of Jupiter" executed circa 1926. Signed to lower left with artist cypher and dated. Mounted in a gold leaf wooden frame with mat. Board measures approx. 15 1/2" height x 22" width. Measures approx. 26" height x 32 1/2" width overall including frame.
Mounted in a gold leaf wooden frame with mat. Board measures approx. 15 1/2" height x 22" width. Measures approx. 26" height x 32 1/2" width overall including frame.
Provenance Joshua Kodner sale March 26, 2022 lot 13 Dania Beach, FL, US Sotheby's London sale June 9, 2010, Lot 268
There is an undeniable, pulsing undercurrent of eroticism found throughout Nikolai Kalmakov`s oeuvre. A member of the ascetic Skoptzy movement, Kalamakov eschewed the company of women, including that of his wife. In his works one is frequently faced with the menacing femme fatale, threatening to lead astray and consume her male victim. In the present lot, we see the sensuous nude body of Hebe, the goddess of youth, encircled by a lustrous cascade of red hair, presented before her father Jupiter in the form of an eagle. By removing from the composition the cup of ambrosia Hebe is meant to be presenting to the eagle of Jupiter, Kalmakov places the main focus on to the tension between the two figures in the still, star-filled night.
Spirale mystique Gouache sur carton 59 x 43,5 cm Monogrammé et daté 1921 en bas à gauche Paris Vente Chevau-Legers enchères, 23 mars 2009, Versailles, lot n° 67.; Millon Paris sale 15Feb 2022 lot143
THREE WOMEN RIDING A MONSTER signed with artist's monogram l.r. and dated 1911, watercolor and gouache over pencil on paper heightened with chalk and gold paint, size: 63 by 48.5cm., 24¾ by 19in. EXHIBITED: Galerie Motte, Paris, 1964, Cat. No. 17 Illustrated in Калмаков Николай, текст Боулт и Балыбина, Искусство 21 век Москва 2008 p 32.
Costume for an executor in “Salome”, Theater of Vera Kommissarjevski, SPB 1908, mixed technique on paper, signed and dated low right, 22x29cm. Illustrated in Калмаков Николай, текст Боулт и Балыбина, Искусство 21 век Москва 2008 p 92.
Two drawings, mixed media on paper, 24x32 cm each, glued back to back together: 1. Self-portrait as Gorgona Medusa, signed with artist's monogram low right 2. Paraphrase on Leda and a Swan - sexual encounter scene between a girl and several birds (harpies)
NUDE signed with artist's monogram l.r., mixed media on paper , size: 9x11 inches
