Allegory

Signed in Latin, inscribed Capri and dated 1935 l.r. Alexander Yakovlev was among the most successful Russian artists who settled in France after the Revolution. He arrived nearly penniless in Paris, but made a name for himself almost immediately with the paintings and drawings of his travels in Far East Asia. His exceptional draughtsmanship earned him the position of the official artist of the Croisière noire and Croisière jaune, the famous automobile expeditions across Africa and Asia organised by André Citroën, both of which were followed by solo exhibitions at the prestigious Galerie Jean Charpentier. After the Asiatic expedition however, Yakovlev became increasingly dissatisfied with the polished realism of his earlier work, looking for new means of expression. The present painting with its harmonious colours is an outstanding example from this intense creative period, when Yakovlev was particularly interested in classical mythology. A tribute to the artist’s beloved Capri, its landscapes and its people, the painting has also been interpreted as an allegorical treatment of love between man and woman. The background recalls the famous arched rocks of the Faraglioni located off the island, and the youth by the many local fishermen the artist had met during his stays there. It was to Capri that Yakovlev intended to return shortly before his premature death in 1938, which cut short a new and promising stage of his career. In the words of art critic Martin Birnbaum, late paintings like Allegory and Neptune and Andromeda, ‘compose only a wonderful prelude to eternal silence’ (M.Birnbaum, Jacovleff and other artists, New York, 1946, p.19).