Portrait of Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov

1913

Aleksei Morgunov
Born Moscow (Russian Empire, now Russia), 1884; died Moscow (Soviet Union, now Russia), 1935

In 1913, while active in Moscow, Aleksei Morgunov depicted artists Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov, fellow members in the avant-garde group known as the Donkey’s Tail. When Morgunov made the portrait, he had just returned from traveling in France, Germany, and Italy. The painting’s composition echoes two works he might have seen on his trip: Luncheon in the Studio (1868) and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), both by French artist Édouard Manet. Morgunov combined references to Manet’s work with a background that evokes Russian folk images and vernacular traditions, which the Donkey’s Tail favored over Francocentric tendencies in modern art.

Status: On View, Gallery 392
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Aleksei Alekseevich Morgunov
Title: Portrait of Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov
Place: Russia (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1913
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: none
Dimensions: 104.1 × 136.5 cm (41 × 53 3/4 in.)
Credit Line: Mary and Leigh Block Fund for Acquisitions
Reference Number: 1975.666

Grosvenor Gallery, “Magnificent Rare Portrait of Gontcharova and Larionov,” Advertisement, Apollo CI: 160 (June 1975), p. 123 (ill.).
A. James Speyer and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth-Century European Paintings (Chicago, 1980), p. 69, no. 3G3.

Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Avant Garde in Russia, 1910-1930: New Perspectives, July 8-February 15, 1981, no. 235; traveled to Washington, D.C., Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithonian Institution, November 20, 1980-February 15, 1981.
The Art Institute of Chicago, A Case for Wine, July 11-September 20, 2009, no cat.

The Grosvenor Gallery, London. Sold to the Art Institute, 1975.

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Portrait of Natalia Goncharova and Mikhail Larionov

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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