Nicolas KALMAKOFF (1873-1955) - Lot 131

Lot 131
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Result : 14 000EUR
Nicolas KALMAKOFF (1873-1955) - Lot 131
Nicolas KALMAKOFF (1873-1955) Huitzilopochtli Oil on panel, signed with the monogram and dated 1927 lower left. Numbered II on the reverse. 55 x 55 cm. Huitzilopochtli is among the Astecs, a deity of war, the sun and human sacrifice. Provenance: Chapel of the Resurrected, 38 rue Fontaine in Paris, whose decoration had been ordered to Nicolas Kalmakoff by Héliodore Fortin in 1927. Nicolas Kalmakoff is a Russian symbolist artist, who joined the Mir Iskousstva group of artists where he met Serge de Diaghilev creator of the Russian ballets. In 1908 he designed the sets and costumes for Oscar Wilde's play Salome, which was banned because it was considered scandalous. In 1924, he left Russia and emigrated to Paris where he exhibited in 1927 at the Galerie Charpentier and the following year in Brussels. Héliodore Fortin (1889-1934), author of La Bible des Esprits Libres and founder of a religious sect, commissions Nicolas Kalmakoff 24 panels for his chapel of the Resurrectory, located 5 rue Joseph-Dijon in Paris. The painter realized, in 1927, twelve stations: the "path of divinization" and twelve portraits of "vice-gods": Minotaur, First Inca, Osiris, Buddha, Pharaoh, Jesus, Odin, Huitzilopochtli, Mammon, Allah, Jehovah, and Mitra transmigration of souls. We present two of them: Huitzilopochtli "Mexican vice-god, symbol of the sun in its most destructive elements" and Odin, main god of the pantheon of Germanic mythology, represented with raven wings adorning his helmet. These panels, long forgotten, were rediscovered in 1969 in Metz. Bibliography: P. Bénard, "Le chemin de la Divination au Résurrectoir", L'Oeuvre, August 26, 1928, pp.1 and 4.
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