Boris Grigoriev (Russian, 1886-1939)

Boris Grigoriev was a Russian painter, graphic artist and author. Having studied painting in St Petersburg and later in Paris, the artist experimented freely with many materials including graphite and charcoal in works on paper and richly colourful oils, gouaches and temperas on canvas. In Russia, the artist exhibited with the World of Art movement from 1913 and was a member of the Union of Impressionists. The so-called ‘leaderless workshop’, organised by Grigoriev in 1919, later became the Society of Young Artists (OBMOKhU). While prominent in the Russian avant-garde circles and drawing from Cubism, Expressionism and Fauvism, Grigoriev did not subscribe to one style. He travelled extensively through Europe, the United States, and Central and South America. His two most famous cycles are Intimité and Raseya, the first is dedicated to prostitutes Grigoriev encountered while in France, and the second portrays the difficulties of peasant life in impoverished rural Russia. Both series attest to the artist's key tenet - to not romanticise nor idealise his subjects and their circumstances.