Konstantin Andreewich Somov Russian, 1869-1939
Young Man Reclining (Boris Snezhkovsky), 1931

POA

Sanguine and pastel on paper
Signed and dated (twice) (lower right)
32 × 48 cm (46 × 59 cm framed)

Eventually emigrating to Paris after the Russian Revolution, Somov was a founding member of Mir iskusstva (World of Art), a Russian artistic movement and magazine, edited by Sergei Diaghilev. In his private life, he had a longtime, younger male companion, Methodiy Lukyanov (who died in 1932), and an ambiguous artistic and personal relationship with a young boxer, Boris Snezhkovsky, whom he painted many times in 1930s; see for example The Boxer, 1933. Snezhkovsky initially modeled for Somov's illustrations for Daphnis and Chloe by Longus (Éditions du Trianon, Paris, 1931). This is a preparatory study for these illustrations.