A. Ivanova. Painting of the Engineer Lukin's Dining Room

The photo shows part of a private interior with a thematic painting by Antonina Ivanova (according to the Ukrainian-language simple pencil inscription below the photo: "Ivanova A. M. Painting of the engineer Lukin's dining room"). This work is special because it combines and captures all the diversity of the artist's theoretical and practical experience. At first glance, from the point of view of composition, the viewer is presented with a stylised local variation of Dutch-painted tiles, such as those in the Menshykov Palace (St Petersburg, russia). A closer look at the image, however, reveals a replica of Antonina Ivanova's 1920 (Kyiv period) work "Kateryna", based on Taras Shevchenko's poem (paper, gouache, now kept in the Central State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine). Next to it is a "tile" depicting a sailing ship, which resembles a graphic sketch, probably by Mykhailo Lezviiev (now in the Gallery). In the centre of the bottom row, we see the figure of a rider on a horse with a sabre (possibly a representative of the North Caucasus, such as a Circassian). Next to him is a woman in a stylised folk costume, sitting on a chest by a window, weaving. Almost similar compositions with women doing this work can be found in Antonina Ivanova's "Spinner" (mid–1920s, National Art Museum of Ukraine), Oksana Pavlenko's sketches for the composition "Spinner" (1921, Central State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art of Ukraine) and Volodymyr Favorskyi's woodcut depicting a woman spinning (1921). The range is completed by a section with a tree motif, which has analogues in the practices of the Boichukists, as well as in Baroque prints and marginal drawings. In the middle row, the one on the far right, there is a stylised city, again alluding to the practices of artists from Mykhailo Boichuk's circle. Next to it is a "tile" depicting a domestic scene: a young man dressed in 1920s fashion is sitting in a wooded park, drinking beer from a characteristically shaped bottle. In the middle of this row is the image of a rooster, which appears in Antonina Ivanova's works – paintings on silk (one of which is in the Gallery's collection) and graphic works. To the left of the rooster is the figure of a lady walking along the edge of the forest, holding a bouquet of wildflowers. The row is completed by a somewhat caricatured image of an animal whose silhouette and mane resemble those of a horse. Its tail is short and curled like a pig's, its horns are like those of a bull, and its limbs are completed by what look like chicken legs, while thick grey smoke comes from the creature's nostrils (perhaps a fantasy on the theme of a chimaera or indryk-beast). The top row depicts a lone, stylised fir tree, and next to it is a segment depicting a jester (possibly Harlequin) in characteristic costume with bells and rattles, a pipe he is blowing, and an unidentified object (a jug? or a pouch?). This figure resembles the one in Konstantin Somov's "Harlequin and Death" (1907). Antonina Ivanova became acquainted with this artist's practice during her stay in Petrograd. In the middle of the row, we can see a tree with fruit, probably an apple tree, which was a frequent motif in the practice of Mykhailo Boichuk and artists of his circle (for example, M. Boichuk's work "Under the Apple Tree", 1912–1913 (the Gallery's collection); M. Rokytskyi's "Apple Tree", 1923 (Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum in Lviv); A. Ivanova's "Apple Picking in the Collective Farm", 1930s (the Gallery's collection). Next to this section is an image of a woman sitting in an interior, holding a bird in her hand. This is not an uncommon motif for artists from Mykhailo Boichuk's circle. The row is completed by the figure of a woman in a stylised folk costume walking barefoot along the riverbank, carrying buckets on a stick and in her hand (similar motifs can be found in Serhii Kolos's sketch for a carpet, 1920s, private collection). It is impossible to determine what exactly was in the rectangle above these "tiles", but the lower part of this mural also resonates with the practices of the Boichukists in its interpretation of the ground. No less attention should be paid to the objects on the table (?) in front of a painted wall. For example, a fragment of the plate shown in the photo is a famous Suprematist work by Kazymyr Malevych, "Dynamic Composition", 1923 (the author of the form is Serafyma Yakovleva (1910–1993), the authors of the painting are Kazymyr Malevych and Veronika Vetrova, overglaze polychrome painting, porcelain, Leningrad Porcelain Factory, one of the samples is kept in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, russia). The other piece in the foreground, however, is quite dark so that only part of the silhouette is visible, and according to the hypothesis of the researcher Olha Khutorianska, it is a wooden skopkar (a type of drinking vessel) from the late 19th century – the early 1920s. Voronov's 1924 publication "On Peasant Art" reproduces an almost similar product on page 51 (il. 40 – an object from the Arkhangelsk province), about which the researcher himself wrote: "Skopkars are ingeniously embodied in the form of a water bird, the long beak and flat tail serve as two handles of this vessel (...) this whole numerous group of figured dishes leads us into the space of extraordinary constructive imagination, original and skilful mastery of form and developed artistic taste. A special imprint of sobering fantasy is characteristic of these monuments. The ancient symbolic features inherent in their appearance are adopted, transformed, and dissolved into everyday forms" (p. 60). It should be stressed that Antonina Ivanova worked with this publication, as evidenced by the artist's painting, which is marked "after Voronov". The piece in the dining room is more likely to be a later work and, given its exquisite forms, was probably made in the studio of Vasyl Vornoskov (1876–1940), which was in operation from 1921 (according to other sources, from 1922). Next to the skopkar is a copper cup, typical of the period and region, and a metal stand with legs and an animal head (probably for something hot, such as an iron on coals). As for the date of the painting itself, it is probably the mid or late 1920s, but 1923 at the earliest (given the dating of Malevych's work).

Borys Voznytskyi Lviv National Art Gallery