McCarthey Gallery - December 2010 Monthly Auction
Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery

December 2010 Monthly Auction

Every month we select a painting and hold a no reserve silent auction. As our December auction pick, we are pleased to present the perfect piece for the season, "Winter Landscape" by famous landscape painter Vladimir Pavlovich Krantz. Bidding begins at $250, followed by minimum bidding increments of $250. The auction will end at 9 PM on Friday, December 30th.   BID FORM

Winning Bid, $2,250  C Johnson, Estimated Price $4,000.

Krantz_Auction
 

Krantz Vladimir Pavlovich
"Winter Landscape"
 1975, 15" x 27" (38,1 x 68,58 cm) 
 Oil on Board, Estimated Price: $4,000

 

"I visited Mr Krantz at his studio in St Petersburg shortly before his death in 2003.  While he was close to blind and very weak, he lit up as I picked up paintings one-by-one and asked him if he could remember painting the particular painting.  Although he was slumped and ill, as I held up the painting, he seemed to come to life as he animatedly described each painting.  Vivid with detail, excitement and overwhelming enthusiasm, he described the place and the people.  It was almost as if he had painted the work that afternoon.  For a few brief moments, the artist emerged and reveled in his life and his work.  As we reached the end of the visit, he returned to his illness". -  Jim Dabakis

Vladimir Pavlovich Krantz (1913-2003), translated from the original Russian

Vladimir Krantz was a master of the lyrical landscape.

He was born in Mozdok, Chechnya in 1913. His mother was Cossack, and his father came from German nobility. His father, Von Rosen Krantz, was exiled to the Caucasus for participation in the December uprising of 1825 against Emperor Nickolas I.                

The artist showed his talent in early years when he studied at the studio of a local painter, A. Turbin. After finishing secondary school he worked as a draftsman and received a recommendation to the Academy of Fine Arts in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Just before the entrance exams V. Krantz showed his sketches to the rector of the Academy, a prominent Soviet artist Isaak Brodsky and met with his approval.

Unfortunately, typhoid prevented him from entering the Academy that year and in 1935 he successfully passed the exams to the Architectural Faculty of the Civil Engineering Institute in 1940. However, no sooner had he received the Degree of the Architect, the war with German fascism (1941-1945) started. He registered as a volunteer to the front, but was selected for the Air Force academy and he went to the remote Tajikistan to teach at a school of aircraft mechanics.

After World War II he returned to Leningrad to help restore the destroyed city.   While in Leningrad he studied at the studio of S. Nevelshtein, a staunch follower of the realistic tradition.   He set high standards and purposefully painted from nature again and again. One of his favorite places was the ancient Russian town of Staraja Ladoga in the St. Petersburg Region. The works painted there gained a great success during his first one-man show in 1967 and in 1973 he joined the Russian Artists' Union.

On the painter's canvases you can see the nature of the Urals and Pskov area, the land of Tver and Leningrad, Karelia, Crimea and Baikal. And in August of 1996 the spiritually young artist is going to have a work in a village of the Novgorod Oblast. Whatever landscape of Russia is painted by the artist, all his landscapes are distinguished by a softness of the brush and a gentle musical harmony of colors. One would call recherche nocturnes such his canvases as "Thaw," "The Coming of the Spring," "The Breath of the Spring," "The Merry May" and other paintings. Water is one of the most important components in almost all of Krantz's landscapes. The artist feels the world in a harmony of three elements - the heaven, the water and the earth. And due to this he moves from the instant and from the trembling of the moment towards the existential state of nature and impresses a lasting state, the "eternal beauty" according to Pushkin.  

Vladimir Krantz considered Nature to be the main teacher. None of the painters greatly influenced the artist's manner as he went his path directed mainly by his own inward intuition and original talent. He preferred painting "ala prima," finishing his landscape in one day. Using photos was the common practice of such great masters as Vrubel and Degas, and Krantz following in their example, studied and gave a more precise definition to the juxtaposition of color, light-and-shade. He never went down to the rough naturalism or unwarranted detailing both in drawing and coloring. Krantz intentionally denied the fleeting effects so typical of the Impressionists and art of the XX Century. He saw the integrity and calm in the landscape, which should represent the stability and firmness of being.

-Born February 17, 1913 in Mozdok, Northern Caucas.

-1940, graduated from Architectural department of Leningrad Building Institute.

-Since 1957 he has participated in Art Exhibitions.

-Member of LOSKH (Leningrad Union of Artists of the RSFSR) since 1972.

-Noted landscape painter.-Personal Exhibitions in Leningrad (1964, 1977, 1991) and St. Petersburg (1992, 1995, 2002).

-Modern Soviet painting exhibition. Gekkoso Gallery. Tokyo, 1977.

-Ecole de Saint-Petersburg. Drouot Richelieu. 13 Mars 1992. Paris, 1992.

-Paintings by Vladimir KRANTZ are in Art museums and private collections in the Russia, USA, Japan, Germany, and throughout the world.

Estimated Price, $4,000, Current Bid $250
 
Auction Rules

A fun new tradition at the TKM Gallery, every month we select a painting and hold a no reserve silent auction.  Over the months there have been some 'steals' and some bidding wars but no matter the outcome, it has been exciting for our Russian art collectors.

You can print the form, and either fax the completed form to (435-658-1730) or send a simple e-mail containing the information on the bid form via e-mail to info@mccartheygallery.net.

Please be sure to include your full name, address, phone number, and email address.

In the case of identical bids, the Gallery will give precedence to the first one received, so it is to your advantage to indicate a maximum bid, and to submit your bid as early as possible.

Bid Form

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Thomas Kearns McCarthey Gallery
444 Main Street
Park City, Utah 84060
Tel: 435-658-1691
Email: info@mccartheygallery.net