Leonid Berman (1896-1976), Côte dieppoise

Leonid Berman (1896-1976)
Côte dieppoise
signed and dated 'Leonid. 38.' (lower right); further signed, inscribed with title, dated and numbered 'VII/1938/Leonid/1938/No25./VII/1938' (label on the reverse)
oil on canvas
31¾ x 23½ in. (80.5 x 59.5 cm.)
Painted in 1938

Provenance

Purchased by Edward James from Julien Levy Gallery, New York, 15 August 1939, for $700.

Leonid and Eugène Berman

Like their contemporary and fellow Russian, Pavel Tchelitchew, the Berman brothers were amongst the group of artists in Paris in the 1920s known as the ?Neo-Romanticists?. Unlike Tchelitchew and Christian Bérard, however, who both concentrated on the human figure, the Bermans? work focused more on man within the environment and landscape. Leonid Berman?s paintings often depicted beaches with fisherman?s boats and nets in many parts of the world. Eugène Berman?s works particularly commented on the decay of the modern world, with often sorrowful depictions of man portrayed amongst ruins, with inspiration drawn from classical sources.

Following his emigration to New York in 1935, the direction of Eugène Berman?s work shifted. The American art dealer and critic Julien Levy, who in the 1930s exhibited and dealt in works by many of the artists patronised and collected by Edward James, described him in his autobiography: ?Neo-Romantic was perhaps a misnomer. [Eugène] Berman and his group were Neo-Renaissance, more precisely romantic only in the trappings of melancholy and ruin, poverty and nostalgia. That was an integral part of their life at this time and not untrue of the human situation in general; behind the crazy glitter of false values, dark forces were lighting the way to another war?. On top of this, Berman?s keen involvement in the theatre was perhaps symptomatic of the desire to be a ?Renaissance? artist in the sense of mastering all other forms of ?art? besides painting.