Eugène LANCERAY (1875–1946)
Eugène LANCERAY (1875–1946) A Gentle Evening in Angora, 1922 Tempera and watercolor on paper Signed, located, and dated “1922” lower left 34 × 50.3 cm Provenance: private collection, Paris. Auction at Eve, Paris, December 21, 2007. Lot 161. The work will be included in the artist’s catalog raisonné prepared by Pavel Pavlinov, the expert and author of the book *Eugène Lanceray. Caucasus* (Slovo, 2019). In the 1920s and 1930s, the Caucasus became a vast creative laboratory for Eugène Lanceray. The artist undertook more than twenty expeditions to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan; he traveled at the invitation of public and cultural institutions, worked as a collaborator with the Ethnographic Museum and the Caucasian Historical and Archaeological Institute, and then, beginning in 1922, taught at the Georgian Academy of Fine Arts. A trip to Turkey, undertaken during the summer of 1922, holds a special place in this Eastern odyssey. It was at the invitation of S.I. Aralov, the Soviet plenipotentiary representative to the Turkish Grand National Assembly, that Lanceray traveled to Ankara—then known as Angora, the capital of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s national Turkey. Later, while preparing a book about this journey, the artist expressly emphasized that it was precisely the conditions offered to him in Angora that had allowed him to “devote himself passionately to his artistic work.” The journey turned out to be anything but peaceful. Lanceray made the sea crossing from Batumi to İnebolu; the steamship was targeted by a Greek squadron. Already on the return journey, at the Ilgaz Pass, the mail stagecoach in which the artist was traveling was attacked by bandits. These adventures, however, only served to heighten his awareness of the world around him. Lanceray’s notes on Angora are particularly eloquent where historical observation gives way to an almost pictorial impression. In his diary, we find motifs that echo the work on display: the city at dusk, plunging into darkness, with scattered lights and passersby holding lanterns in their hands: “In this quiet country, in this quiet city, twilight is imbued with a special charm. I wander through the winding and still unfamiliar streets of the old neighborhoods. The darkness thickens rapidly, but no lights are visible yet: there are no streetlights (they’re found only in the center, on two or three streets), and the residents aren’t in a hurry to turn on their lamps; they’re ‘enjoying the twilight.’ There is no chatter, no singing, no sound of passersby. /…/ But now it is completely dark, and, one by one, the lights come on in the windows /.../ It is here, in these tea rooms, these “chai-khana,” that at this hour of the evening, their regulars gather at a leisurely pace; distinguished people, sometimes already in nightwear—clad in long shirts reaching down to their heels, over which they wear a jacket or coat, with shoes on their feet, a lantern in hand. ” His travel drawings retain their significance not only as works of art but also as a unique visual record of that era. Lanceray worked with exceptional intensity. During the summer of 1922, he created more than 150 works. A large portion of them was presented as early as the fall of that same year at an exhibition dedicated to his work in Petrograd. Art critic Éric Gollerbach wrote about this exhibition in a newspaper: “Some of these watercolors remained in Moscow (acquired by the government), but what is on display within the walls of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts also constitutes a rich body of ethnographic and artistic material. Under the gray sky of Saint Petersburg, in the twilight of a November day, the distant South suddenly rises before us, and we can feel its scorching breath. Mosques, villages, dachas, the ruins of Byzantine walls, an old cemetery, cypress trees—and above it all—a clear blue sky, the sun, and silence. One can also see various types of Angora residents.” Soon the plan arose to publish a series of twenty color autolithographs, and in 1925 the book *Summer in Angora. Drawings and Notes from the Travel Journal in Anatolia during the Summer of 1922” was published in Leningrad—one of the most comprehensive accounts of the artist’s Eastern creative period. [ We thank Dr. Pavel Pavlinov and Dr. Olga Pavlinova Lanceray for their assistance in authenticating the
[ translate ]Eugène LANCERAY (1875–1946) A Gentle Evening in Angora, 1922 Tempera and watercolor on paper Signed, located, and dated “1922” lower left 34 × 50.3 cm Provenance: private collection, Paris. Auction at Eve, Paris, December 21, 2007. Lot 161. The work will be included in the artist’s catalog raisonné prepared by Pavel Pavlinov, the expert and author of the book *Eugène Lanceray. Caucasus* (Slovo, 2019). In the 1920s and 1930s, the Caucasus became a vast creative laboratory for Eugène Lanceray. The artist undertook more than twenty expeditions to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan; he traveled at the invitation of public and cultural institutions, worked as a collaborator with the Ethnographic Museum and the Caucasian Historical and Archaeological Institute, and then, beginning in 1922, taught at the Georgian Academy of Fine Arts. A trip to Turkey, undertaken during the summer of 1922, holds a special place in this Eastern odyssey. It was at the invitation of S.I. Aralov, the Soviet plenipotentiary representative to the Turkish Grand National Assembly, that Lanceray traveled to Ankara—then known as Angora, the capital of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s national Turkey. Later, while preparing a book about this journey, the artist expressly emphasized that it was precisely the conditions offered to him in Angora that had allowed him to “devote himself passionately to his artistic work.” The journey turned out to be anything but peaceful. Lanceray made the sea crossing from Batumi to İnebolu; the steamship was targeted by a Greek squadron. Already on the return journey, at the Ilgaz Pass, the mail stagecoach in which the artist was traveling was attacked by bandits. These adventures, however, only served to heighten his awareness of the world around him. Lanceray’s notes on Angora are particularly eloquent where historical observation gives way to an almost pictorial impression. In his diary, we find motifs that echo the work on display: the city at dusk, plunging into darkness, with scattered lights and passersby holding lanterns in their hands: “In this quiet country, in this quiet city, twilight is imbued with a special charm. I wander through the winding and still unfamiliar streets of the old neighborhoods. The darkness thickens rapidly, but no lights are visible yet: there are no streetlights (they’re found only in the center, on two or three streets), and the residents aren’t in a hurry to turn on their lamps; they’re ‘enjoying the twilight.’ There is no chatter, no singing, no sound of passersby. /…/ But now it is completely dark, and, one by one, the lights come on in the windows /.../ It is here, in these tea rooms, these “chai-khana,” that at this hour of the evening, their regulars gather at a leisurely pace; distinguished people, sometimes already in nightwear—clad in long shirts reaching down to their heels, over which they wear a jacket or coat, with shoes on their feet, a lantern in hand. ” His travel drawings retain their significance not only as works of art but also as a unique visual record of that era. Lanceray worked with exceptional intensity. During the summer of 1922, he created more than 150 works. A large portion of them was presented as early as the fall of that same year at an exhibition dedicated to his work in Petrograd. Art critic Éric Gollerbach wrote about this exhibition in a newspaper: “Some of these watercolors remained in Moscow (acquired by the government), but what is on display within the walls of the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts also constitutes a rich body of ethnographic and artistic material. Under the gray sky of Saint Petersburg, in the twilight of a November day, the distant South suddenly rises before us, and we can feel its scorching breath. Mosques, villages, dachas, the ruins of Byzantine walls, an old cemetery, cypress trees—and above it all—a clear blue sky, the sun, and silence. One can also see various types of Angora residents.” Soon the plan arose to publish a series of twenty color autolithographs, and in 1925 the book *Summer in Angora. Drawings and Notes from the Travel Journal in Anatolia during the Summer of 1922” was published in Leningrad—one of the most comprehensive accounts of the artist’s Eastern creative period. [ We thank Dr. Pavel Pavlinov and Dr. Olga Pavlinova Lanceray for their assistance in authenticating the
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