R. Smirnov Russian Symbolist Night Vision

An original 1916 charcoal drawing, R. Smirnov, Russian Symbolist Night Vision.

This wonderfully intriguing charcoal drawing is inscribed indistinctly on the verso 'R. Smirnof' and has an accompanying fragment of paper inscribed 'Russian 1916'.

The striking nighttime street scene shows a darkly silhouetted public statue looming anonymously amidst densely leaved trees and imposing neoclassical architecture. The vision is very much that of the Russian Symbolist movement—an intellectual and artistic movement predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, which arose separately from European symbolism. The Symbolist style was based on mysticism and ostranenie, presenting to audiences common things in an unfamiliar or strange way so they could gain new perspectives and see the world differently.

Russian Symbolism was a catalyst for the evolution of the Russian avant-garde; by newly emphasising the aesthetic or abstract value of art, Symbolist writers and painters anticipated some of the major concerns of artists such as Kandinsky, Malevich and Mikail Matiushin.

On brown paper with perforated left edge.