Bouquet of gerberas, Nicolas Evreinoff, 1920s-1950s

Artist: Nicolas Evreinoff. Renowned Russian playwright and painter who sought refuge in France after the Revolution. Title: Bouquet of Gerberas, 1930-1940. Oil on canvas on wooden frame 15 Figure. Canvas dimensions: 65 × 54 cm. Frame dimensions: 69.7 × 58.7 cm. Recognisable signature at the bottom right. Inventory number: 2490 (stamp and manuscript on the back of the frame) Condition: significant partial cracking. Restoration required. Delivered framed. The son of a French woman and a Russian engineer, Nicolas Evreinoff became interested in theatre at an early age and wrote his first play at the age of 7. In 1910, Evreinov left his job at the Ministry of Railways to become a producer, playwright, and composer for the False Mirror Theatre in Saint Petersburg. There, he staged over a hundred plays, fourteen of which he wrote himself. His production of The Government Inspector marked a turning point in the history of Russian theatre: each act is staged to parody one of the following aesthetics: provincial realistic theatres, the Moscow Art Theatre of Constantin Stanislavski, the techniques of Edward Gordon Craig and Max Reinhardt, and sentimental comedy films. In 1922 and 1923, Evreinov travelled to Berlin and Paris, where his plays were produced by figures such as Jacques Copeau and Charles Dullin. He spent the rest of his life in Paris, working with the Russian Opera, the Sorbonne, and Serge Lifar. Most of his paintings were produced during his exile in Paris, between 1924 and 1953.