Natalia Goncharova

• 1. Born In Nagaevo

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  Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova entered the world on the 3rd of July 1881 in the village of Nagaevo. This rural location now sits within the Chernsky District of Tula Oblast. Her father Sergey Mikhaylovich Goncharov was an architect who graduated from the Moscow Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He designed and built their family home where Natalia grew up alongside her brother Afanasii. The household raised both children under the guidance of their mother and grandmother. They lived in the Orlov and Tula provinces before moving to Moscow in 1892. At age ten she enrolled at the Fourth Women's Gymnasium. She completed her studies there by 1898. Before choosing art she tried careers in zoology history botany and medicine. Her great grandfather was the famous Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

• 2. The Jack Of Diamonds

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  Moscow's first radical independent exhibiting group formed after students were expelled from Konstantin Korovin's portrait class. Mikhail Larionov named this new collective the Jack of Diamonds. Their first exhibition ran from December 1910 through January 1911. It featured Primitivist and Cubist paintings by Goncharova. The group split in half during 1912 when Larionov distanced himself from Aristarkh Lentulov and Pyotr Konchalovsky. They formed a more provocative group called the Donkey's Tail. This second group held its first exhibition between March and April 1912. More than fifty of her paintings appeared on display there. Goncharova drew inspiration for primitivism from Russian icons and folk art known as luboks. The censor confiscated her religiously themed work The Evangelists. Officials deemed it blasphemous partly because it hung at an exhibition titled after the rear end of a donkey. Taboos existed for women to paint icons.

• 3. Rayonism And Futurism

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  Goncharova and Larionov developed Rayonism in 1911. They produced many paintings in that style together. Her aesthetic choices bridged Eastern and Western traditions serving as a catalyst for manifestos. She became famous for works like Cyclist which mixed Cubist and Futurist elements. In one interview she stated she got inspiration from Picasso Le Fauconnier and Braque. Yet her first Cubist works dated back over a year before that statement. She organized provocative lecture evenings similar to Italian counterparts. Goncharova was also involved with graphic design writing and illustrated several avant-garde books. Another important exhibition she participated in was called The Target running from March to April 1913. No. 4 followed from March to April 1914. She exhibited at the Salon d'Automne Exposition de L'art Russe in 1906. Even though her pre-World War I art had problematic associations her participation segued Moscow's avant-garde blending both Western European Modernism and Eastern traditions.

• 4. Ballets Russes Designs

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  In 1915 she began designing ballet costumes and sets in Geneva. That same year she started work on a series of designs including Six Winged Seraph Angel St Andrew and Nativity. Sergei Diaghilev commissioned these pieces for a ballet titled Liturgy. Igor Stravinsky was invited to compose the score but the ballet never materialized. Goncharova moved to Paris in 1921 where she designed stage sets for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She collaborated on four events in Paris for the benefit of the Union des Artistes Russes. These included the Grand Bal des Artistes on the 23rd of February 1923 and the Bal Banal on the 14th of March 1924. They also designed much of the publicity materials for these events. Her work had a major influence on French fashion particularly with legendary designer Paul Poiret. She worked closely with Bronislava Nijinska during this period.

• 5. Parisian Exile And Fashion

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  Goncharova became a French national in 1938. Between 1922 and 1926 she created fashion designs for Marie Cuttoli's shop Maison Myrbor on Rue Vincent. Her richly embroidered and appliquéd dress designs were strongly influenced by Russian folk art. Byzantine mosaic and her work for the Ballets Russes shaped these creations too. On the 2nd of June 1955 four years after Larionov suffered a stroke they got married in Paris. This union safeguarded their rights of inheritance. Influenced by the School of Paris her style moved from Cubism nearer to Neoclassicism. She died seven years later on the 17th of October 1962 in Paris. A debilitating struggle with rheumatoid arthritis preceded her death. She was the first of the pair to die.

• 6. Auction Records And Value

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  On the 18th of June 2007 Goncharova's 1909 painting Picking Apples sold at Christie's for $9.8 million. This set a record for any female artist at that time. Bluebells brought £3.1 million or $6.2 million in November 2007. Her 1912 still-life The Flowers formerly part of Guillaume Apollinaire's collection sold for $10.8 million in 2008. She is considered one of the most expensive women artists at auction. Her work features in Russian art auctions during the bi-annual Russian Art Week in London. In 2019 scholars found two previously unknown gouaches dedicated to Růžena Zátková. These works dated from 1916 and were made while Zatkova suffered from tuberculosis. The Arts Council of Great Britain held a major retrospective of their work in 1961. The Tate Modern in London held a Retrospective in 2019.