Natalia Goncharova

Russian-French artist (1881-1962)

Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova [1] (16 June 1881 – 17 October 1962)[2] was a Russian painter, designer and writer. She was an avant-garde artist: her art styles were influenced by fauvism, cubism and futurism. As a designer she was notable for her set and costume creations for ballet and theatre.[3]

Natalia Goncharova
Self-portrait, 1907
Born(1881-06-16)June 16, 1881
Negaevo, Tula Province, Russia
DiedOctober 17, 1962(1962-10-17) (aged 81)
Paris, France
NationalityRussian; then French
Known forPainting, Costume design, writer, illustrator, set design
The Cyclist, 1913, with cubist and futurist influences
Goncharova's design for St John. Part of a commission by Diaghilev for the ballet The Liturgy

Goncharova holds the world record for the price paid for a work of art by a woman.[4][5] The painting was Goncharova's 1912 still-life The Flowers, and it sold for $U.S. 10.8 million.

Life and work

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Natalia Goncharova studied sculpture in Moscow, but worked as a painter and designer. She was inspired both by an interest in Russian folk art, and by modernism in art. With her lifelong partner Mikhail Larionov she first developed a style called Rayonism. They part of the pre-Revolution Russian avant-garde. They helped to organise the so-called 'Donkey's Tail' exhibition of 1912, and showed their work at the Der Blaue Reiter exhibition in Munich the same year.

Goncharova became famous in Russia for her Futurist work such as The Cyclist and her later Rayonist works. They organised lecture evenings and Goncharova wrote and illustrating a book in Futurist style.

In 1913, she began to design ballet costumes and sets for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and elsewhere. She did the stage and costume design for these ballets: Le Coq d'Or' (1914), The Liturgy (1915), Ygrushka (1921) Reynard (with her husband; 1922), Les Noces (1923), Une nuit sur le mont chauve (1924), The Firebird (1926 revival), Sur le Borsythène (with her husband; 1932), Cendrillon (1938), Bogatyri (1938) and the 1954 Sadler's Wells production of Firebird.[3]

Goncharova moved to Paris in 1921, where she regularly exhibited her art. She became a French citizen in 1939. She married Larionov at last in 1955, and died in Paris, in 1962.

The largest collections of her work are in the Pompidou Centre in Paris; the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg; and the State Tretyakov Gallery, in Moscow.[4]

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  1. Russian: Ната́лья Серге́евна Гончаро́ва. Pronunciation: nɐˈtalʲjə sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvnə ɡənt͡ɕɐˈrovə
  2. Or born Ladyzhino, 4 June 1881. Crane, Debra and Mackrell, Judith 2000. The Oxford dictionary of dance. p208
  3. 3.0 3.1 Crane, Debra and Mackrell, Judith 2000. The Oxford dictionary of dance. p208
  4. 4.0 4.1 Moriarity, Bridget 2009. Artist Dossier: Natalie Goncharova
  5. Vogel, Carol (2008-06-25). "A Monet sets a record: $80.4 million". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-06-26.