Years of life: 1884-1957

Period: avant-garde

Direction: painting, drawing, sculpture, collage

Life and work

the Identity of this woman and her role in that art of the XX century is what we know it is difficult to overestimate. She posed for Modigliani, received a proposal of marriage from Henri Rousseau, painted portraits of Jean Cocteau and Picasso, and founded the "Russian Academy", and then the club help artists. In addition, she was a talented artist whose easel work was repeatedly awarded at various exhibitions, and doing crafts helped to survive the difficult times. "Russian fairy of Montparnasse", French artist of the Russian emigration and the Russian artist of the Paris school — Maria Ivanovna Vasilyeva.

• Maria Vasilyeva. 1917
  Photo: © Modigliani Institut Archives Legales-Rome/Anna Mercedou
  Source: Paris school 1905-1932. From museums and private collections of Paris, Geneva and Moscow. Catalogue of the exhibition of the Pushkin Museum Pushkin. M. : Skanrus, 2011. Str. 36

- Maria Ivanovna (in the literature there is confusion as to the patronymic of the artist in various sources can also be found as V. and M.) Vasileva was born on 12 Feb 1884 in Smolensk, a family of wealthy landowners. The prosperity of the family allowed the girl to go to the capital and to two of education: it is known that in the 18 years she lived in St.-Петербурге and studied medicine and fine arts. Latest — in private art school.

For success in the artistic field and to continue his education in Paris in 1905 she received a scholarship from the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, and this year, with a few interruptions, creative, and personal life of Maria Vasilyeva associated with the capital of France.

In the first two years of stay in Paris, she studied under Henri Matisse and attending lessons of art Academy of La Palette, while also working as a correspondent of many Russian Newspapers.

during the same period (1905-1909) are the earliest easel paintings, executed in a free manner, obviously under the influence of Paul cézanne and Henri Matisse.

the year 1909 was a turning point in the artist's life. This year she participated in the exhibitions of the Autumn salon and the salon of Independent, published an essay about Henri Matisse in 6-м the release of the landmark national magazine about art "Golden fleece" (they say that after the article Schukin drew attention to a little-known French artist), went to one of the many trips to Europe (every country it was particularly interested in folk art), and also became a follower of the "fierce and lyrical cubism", as Braque and Picasso his personal friends. Friendship with the Parisian art scene, however, pushed her in 1910-м year the organization of the Russian literary-художественного society in Paris. Then Maria Vasilyeva became the head of the Russian art Academy in Montparnasse (Avenue du Maine, 54), and two years later in his Studio, located just down the same street (Avenue du Maine, 21), organized a Free Russian Academy, later renamed the Academie Vassilieff (Academy Vasilyeva). In fact, the Academy Vasilyeva was rather open Studio (or club), acting onthe principle of free work, without teaching.

Vasilyeva In the Studio on Avenue du Maine frequent guests were Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Soutine, Zadkine, Max Jacob, Juan Gris and Henri Matisse, and in 1913 two lectures about contemporary art it read Fernand Leger. The wave drag of avant-garde movements in art, 1912-1913 Maria Vasilyeva met with "Amazons of the avant-garde" Love Popova and Nadezhda Udaltsova.

• Maria VASILYEVA Child with a toy. OK. 1920
  Oil on canvas
  17.04.2007. Sotheby's, new-Йорк
  Estimate: $80 000-120 000
  Price: $824 000
  Source: artinvestment.ru

In 1914-м year, from the beginning of the First world war, Maria Vasilyeva went to work as a nurse in the French Red cross, and organized on the basis of a private Academy famous for a soup kitchen for needy artists "Cantine des artistes", there is a dinner cost less than 65 cents, 75 — with wine. From time to time by the police for violation of the "dry law" and "in the interests of public order", covered dining area, which eventually became the venue of the main party of Bohemian Paris; once the artist was arrested and sent under house arrest, but every time I Vasilyeva were friends, by which the institution was reopened.

Bohemian life and charity did not prevent the artist to do art. 1915-1916 years, her work — the main period of fascination with avant-garde styles, including cubism and lucysmom. At this time, despite the war, Vasiliev called for Russia to accept in 1915, participated in the landmark exhibition "0,10" in Petrograd, where a number of "Black square" by Kazimir Malevich she exhibited six of his cubist works. And in 1916 11 cubist works of the artist were represented at the avant-garde exhibition "the Store" in Moscow, organized by Vladimir Tatlin.

In 1916-м, inter alia, Vasileva-to-order theatre of Blattner Geza was engaged in the creation of the famous "puppet" — grotesque volume of portraits of his famous friends: Henri Matisse, Guillaume Apollinaire, Pablo Picasso and others.

In 1918, after the conclusion of the Brest-Литовского peace Treaty, Maria Vasiliev, as a citizen of Russia, was sent from Paris to Fontainebleau; there in the early 1920-х she came to grips with applied art, including furniture design, design of theatrical productions, and even embroidery to order.

In 1920-1925 Maria Vasilyeva has created scenography, costumes and masks for the Swedish ballet of Rolf de Mare, 1927 complied with the extant ornamental panel for the Dome restaurant in Montparnasse, and later created a panel for the Montparnasse station.

• Maria VASILYEVA Man. Woman. Bilateral
  Oil on canvas. 91 × 60
  15.06.2007. Macdougall, London
  Estimate: $138 243-276 486
  Price: $790 019
  Source: artinvestment.ru

With changing life circumstances and changing interests in favor decorative-прикладного art and changing the painting style of the artist. In 1920-е and especially in the 1930-е the years, becoming more planar, even graphic, decorative, as their means of expression, and the stories that are beginning to include elements of mysticism and surrealism.

the Studio of the artist longtime was located far from Paris (in 1930, she moved to the South of France and the capital returned after the Second world war, in 1946), but her work continued to play a significant role in the cultural life of the city and the country. In 1925 the works of Maria Vasilyeva, participated in the international exhibition of artistic-декоративных arts in Paris, 1928-1930 held solo exhibitions in London (the gallery Guggenheim Jeune, owned by Peggy Guggenheim) and Rome. During the 1920-30-х years of work Vasilyeva has appeared at exhibitions in Paris, London, Chicago (it was exhibited at the Congress stooges in 1931) and in several cities of Italy. She even dared to open a Museum of private art — Vassilieff Museum. In 1955 the first retrospective exhibition was held by the gallery Haut-Pave in Paris.

After the return to Paris until his death in 1957, Maria Vasilyeva remained an integral part of the artistic life of Montparnasse. In the year of her death, friends-художники organized a posthumous retrospective of the artist at the gallery Haut-Pave.

• Maria VASILYEVA Child with doll
  Oil on canvas. 62 × 60
  09.06.2008. Sotheby's, London
  Estimate: $500 900-986 591
  Price: USD 783 774
  Source: artinvestment.ru

In 1998 in the former Studio of Maria Vasilyeva was opened Museum of Montparnasse and the Studio was given the status of memorial. In recent decades, interest in the artist from the international art-сообщества came to life: in particular, in 1995 in the Berlin Museum Verborgene Museum hosted a solo exhibition of Maria Vasilyeva, her work has been exhibited at group exhibitions held in the State Russian Museum (Saint-Петербург, 2008), Aktis Gallery (London, 2011-2012), Galerie Le music (Paris, 2015) and the fair Design Miami (Miami-Бич, 2012).

the work of the artist is widely represented in Museum and private collections, mainly in Russia, Central Europe and the United States.

Financial performance

the Sale of three of the most expensive works of Maria Vasilyeva took place in 2007-2008, at the peak of the growing interest of domestic and foreign collectors to the Russian avant-garde. The three top-лотов made paintings 1920-х years: in 2007, with a large excess of the estimate was to sell the painting, "Child with a toy" ($824 000) and "the Man. Woman. Two sided" ($790 019), a year later to the new owner left the canvas "Child with doll" ($783 774).

According to the database ARTinvestment.RU by the time of publication the artist has 396 of auction sales, 14 of them repeat sales. The average cost of sold work — $40.5 thousand, the Total capitalization on the public market — $9.8 million Has a positive balance of sold and unsold works: 242 to 154 (61 % of all trading completed sales).

table 1. Sales by period of holding of the auction

the Period sales, years.	Total sales, units	Successful units.	Failed units.	the success rate, %
1986-2000	118	78	40	66
2001 to 2010	178	112	66	63
2011-2020	100	52	48	52

table 2. Sales by country the auction

Country of sale	Total sales, units	Successful units.	Failed,units.	the success rate, %
France	214	122	92	57
United Kingdom	102	71	31	70
Italy	22	10	12	45
Sweden	22	18	4	82
Germany	9	7	2	78
Belgium	8	4	4	50
USA	6	5	1	83
Russia	5	4	1	80
Ukraine	2	1	1	50
Switzerland	2	0	2	0
and Canada	2	0	2	0
Israel	1	0	1	0
Denmark	1	0	1	0

table 3. Re-sale

№ p/p	Name	Sale		Sale		tenure, years	auction house	Profit $	CAGR, %
		Year	Price, m $	Year	Price, m $
1	Portraits	2007	101,576	2014	84,651	7	MacDougall	-16,925	-2,4
2	Spanish village	2012	152,507	2014	146,400	2	Shovel	-6,107	-2,0
3	a Girl with a cat	2007	372,448	2012	375,070	5	Macdougall	2,622	0,1
4	Love	2010	16,342	2014	31,400	4	MacDougall	15,058	23,0
5	People-зверь	2001	16,450	2016	96,201	15	Christie's	79,751	32,3
6	Fan art	2005	38,940	2007	89,835	2	MacDougall	50,895	65,4
7	Portrait of a young man	2004	13,124	2006	45,000	2	Sothebys	31,876	121,4
8	The Flute (Portrait Of Claude Dubosquet)	2000	30,000	2011	458,315	11	Christie's	428,315	129,8
9	the virgin and rose	1993	0,960	2008	23,750	15	Sotheby's	22,790	158,3
10	Bride Kan-сюр-Мер	2010	16,513	2010	65,447	0	Sotheby's	48,934	296,3
11	Woman by the sea	2003	3,548	2004	28,308	1	Sotheby's	24,760	697,9
12	a Child with a doll	2001	6,426	2005	212,294	4	Appay-Debussy	205,868	800,9

compound annual growth rate (CAGR) — 193,4 %, a very high figure for the Russian artist, having ten or more repeat sales. Holding periods between successful sales inhomogeneous number of years@the semicolon a more detailed analysis shows that a successful strategy has included the acquisition of works for smaller auctions and selling some time later at large.

On the current 325-м AI Auction exhibited work Maria Vasilyeva "Collage with image of the virgin" (1930-е).

Maria Kuznetsova, AI
Denis Belkevich, AI

Sources: Paris school 1905-1932. From museums and private collections of Paris,Geneva And Moscow. Catalogue of the exhibition of the Pushkin Museum Pushkin. M. : Skanrus, 2011; russianparis.com, artinvestment.ru