MYSTICAL IMAGES OF WAR - SKETCHBOOK WITH 28 STUDIES FOR THE SERIES OF LITHOGRAPHSk

Goncharova, Natalia. MYSTICAL IMAGES OF WAR - SKETCHBOOK WITH 28 STUDIES FOR THE SERIES OF LITHOGRAPHS. Ink on paper, 1914. Preparatory drawings for the series of 14 lithographs. Signed with the artist's Cyrillic monogram. 10 x 7 7/8 inches (sheet, with margins of about 5/16 inches around the images). Provenance, Estate of Darius Taleyarkhan (a collector and dealer who lived in London, and who amassed a large and significant collection of the art of the Russian avant garde); Collection of Jon P. Dorsey. The images in Mystical Images of War were created just after Goncharova and her partner, Larionov, returned to Russia from France after the outbreak of war in 1914. Comprising a notebook or sketchbook bound in stamped maroon-colored faux leather, with a label with Goncharova's name in cyrillic on the front cover, Taleyarkhan's rubber stamp on the front pastedown, and elsewhere in the book, Goncharova's name and other notations on the "title" page, eight blank sheets from which items have been removed, evidence of additional sheets having been cut out, three Russian postcards, followed by a pencil drawing of the title page for the series, and 27 ink drawings, each initialed, lower right, by Goncharova, in ink. Included are drawings related to the following lithographs: Title Page. (1)Plate 1. St George The Victorious (1)Plate 2. The White Eagle (2)Plate 3. The British Lion (1)Plate 4. The French Cock (2)Plate 5. The Maiden on the Beast (2)Plate 6. Persevet and Osliabia (2)Plate 7. Michael the Archangel (3)Plate 8, The Vision (3)Plate 9. The Christian Host (0)Plate 10. Angels and Airplanes (1)Plate 11. The Doomed City (4)Plate 12. The Pale Horse (3)Plate 13. A Common Grave (2)Plate 14. Saint Alexander Nevsky (1)The book with the front hinge detached, pages loose, pages removed, as noted above. The drawings all in excellent condition.