Alexandre Iacovleff (1887-1938)

During Alexandre Iacovleff’s scholarship-sponsored trip to Japan, he, as in China, showed great interest in traditional theatre. A masterful draftsman, he executed many highly distinctive works of kabuki theatre characters: masks, set designs, actors, make-up, facial expressions and gestures. At the end of 1919 he brought the pictures he worked on in the Far East to Paris and in the spring of 1920 they were displayed in an exhibition at the Galerie Barbazanges, and later at The Grafton Gallery in London. Thanks to these exhibitions, the artist received an offer to publish a number of 'Far Eastern' books, including the Le théatre Japonais (kabuki) with his illustrations and the text by a notable Russian Japanologist, Serge Elisséeff, who had been Iacovleff’s old Petersburg acquaintance, and had by then emigrated. However, unlike the 'Chinese' editions, which were published in Paris in 1922, the Le théatre Japonais (kabuki) only came out in 1933. The preparation for this publication inspired the artist to explore the theme of Japanese theatre further. Dating from the beginning of the 1930s, new works were inspired by landscapes and sketches from 1919. It is likely that the present lot with masks of kabuki theatre characters was executed at the same time. The masks are freely arranged against an obscure and light green/ash background, which in Japan is called 'arahairo', that is, the colour 'of the underside of leaves and plants', which adds a decorative element that redresses the fan’s colour spectrum. Since all roles in kabuki theatre were played by men, the actors traditionally used fans for covering the lower part of their faces in order to look like women. Iacovleff’s fan, however, was probably not intended for this purpose.
We are grateful to Elena Yakovleva, Doctor of Art History, Senior Researcher of the Russian Institute of Art History, St Petersburg for providing this catalogue note.