Old Trombola
1 of 4
Object Label
Boris Grigoriev trained in art academies in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Paris before finding inspiration in Russian cabarets on the eve of the October Revolution. He immigrated permanently to France in 1921 and continued producing his psychological portraits of Russian showgirls, artists, monks, and peasants. In Old Trombola Grigoriev heightens his sitter’s emotional state by emphasizing his intense gaze and exaggerating the sculptural qualities of his weathered hands and face. Grigoriev later wrote, “I have been watching and studying the Russian people for many years ... and these paintings are the fruits of my observations.”
Caption
Boris Grigoriev Russian, 1886–1939. Old Trombola, 1924. Oil on canvas, 29 × 23 1/2 in. (73.7 × 59.7 cm) frame: 34 5/8 × 28 7/8 × 2 1/2 in. (87.9 × 73.3 × 6.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Morton E. Goldsmith, Boris Grigoriev, and The New Gallery, 25.90. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 25.90_PS2.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Old Trombola
Date
1924
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
Dimensions
29 × 23 1/2 in. (73.7 × 59.7 cm) frame: 34 5/8 × 28 7/8 × 2 1/2 in. (87.9 × 73.3 × 6.4 cm)
Signatures
Signed and dated lower right: "Boris Grigoriev/1924"
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. W. Murray Crane, Morton E. Goldsmith, Boris Grigoriev, and The New Gallery
Accession Number
25.90
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
What is this style of art called?
It's an early twentieth-century version of Realism.In the 1920s, some artists continued to work in the abstract avant-garde styles that emerged in Europe at the turn of the 20th century. (See the completely non-objective painting by Kandinsky nearby.) But in the wake of World War I, many artists returned to a more realist style in which objects and people were shown more naturalistically. This post-war trend is sometimes called "the return to order" and it took on different configurations in different places. The Russian artist Boris Grigoriev traveled and lived in many countries after the war. His work is often associated with the German brand of post-WWI realism known as the New Objectivity movement and its key exponent, Otto Dix.
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