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Lot Essay
Vera Rockline was born in Moscow in 1896 to French and Russian parentage. Whilst in Moscow she studied at the studio of neo-impressionist Il'ia Mashkov, and was later a student of the cubist Alexandra Exter in Kiev. Rockline soon became known as Mashkov's most talented student and was noted for her painterly technique. In 1919 Rockline, under the name Schlezinger, contributed to an exhibition devoted to Jewish painting and sculpture at the Union of Russian Painters in Moscow. Soon after she fled Russia, arriving in Paris in 1921 after a brief stay in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The following year she exhibited at the Salon d'Automne with great success, attracting the attention and admiration of contemporary critics as well as that of the famous French fashion designer Paul Poiret, who bought two of her paintings. Poiret, a passionate and informed art collector, subsequently wrote an enthusiastic preface to her first solo exhibition in Galerie Charles Vildrac in 1925. She continued to exhibit to great acclaim at the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon des Independants as well as in numerous Paris galleries throughout the 1920s.
Vera Rockline's work is often described as sensual and lyrical, influenced both by Impressionism and contemporary Cubism. The French art critic Marius-Ary Leblond hailed Rockline a ‘sister of the great Venetians and of our own Renoir...a great lyrical talent’, stating in a memorial preface at the Salon d'Automne in 1934 that the artist's premature death was 'one of the most painful losses to the Parisian art scene in recent years'. The present lot, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe des deux amies, shows both the influence of Renoir's Classical reclining nudes, and of Manet’s masterpiece Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe of 1863 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris, no. RF 1668). However, Rockline has taken Manet’s composition and removed the dynamic tension between the well-dressed gentlemen and the naked women of Manet’s work, and the depth of perspective. Instead, Rockline’s composition focuses on the beauty of the female nudes, particularly the odalisque reclining figure in the foreground.
Vera Rockline's work is often described as sensual and lyrical, influenced both by Impressionism and contemporary Cubism. The French art critic Marius-Ary Leblond hailed Rockline a ‘sister of the great Venetians and of our own Renoir...a great lyrical talent’, stating in a memorial preface at the Salon d'Automne in 1934 that the artist's premature death was 'one of the most painful losses to the Parisian art scene in recent years'. The present lot, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe des deux amies, shows both the influence of Renoir's Classical reclining nudes, and of Manet’s masterpiece Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe of 1863 (Musée d'Orsay, Paris, no. RF 1668). However, Rockline has taken Manet’s composition and removed the dynamic tension between the well-dressed gentlemen and the naked women of Manet’s work, and the depth of perspective. Instead, Rockline’s composition focuses on the beauty of the female nudes, particularly the odalisque reclining figure in the foreground.