Watercolor on wove paper, circa 1920. 235x360 mm; 9 1/4x14 1/4 inches. Signed in pencil, lower left recto.
Survage (1879-1968) was a French painter of Russian-Danish-Finnish descent born in Finland. Following a severe illness at age 22, Survage changed career paths--he'd been studying business--and entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He became associated with the Russian avant-garde and met Alexander Archipenko (see lots 414 and 415), who encouraged him to exhibit in the Salon d'Automne, Paris, of 1911. Survage actively showed his work in Paris during the early 1910s and, beginning in 1917, shared a studio (and alcoholic abandon) with Amedeo Modigliani (see lots 300-302). By the 1920s, Survage had moved to the south of France and his work became increasingly less hard-edged, in part because of the environment and also likely due to the influence of artists such as Marc Chagall and Paul Klee. He was also active in stage and set design as well as a tapestry/textile designer (he worked with the house of Chanel in the 1930s).
