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Lot Essay
Whether in the American Southwest, where Leon Gaspard eventually settled, the Far East, or his native Russia, the artist's most celebrated canvases capture the folkways of many diverse cultures. Among Leon Gaspard's most distinctive paintings are his lively depictions of Siberian villages and their people, and Siberian Wedding Scene is one of his signature works.
Born in Vitebsk, Russia, in 1882, Gaspard became acquainted with Siberia as a young man, when he frequently toured the province with his father, a fur trader. The artist became intimately familiar with many remote and picturesque villages, and later adopted Siberia as a principal theme in his art.
After a short tenure of art study in Odessa, Gaspard traveled to Paris to complete his formal artistic training. While in France, he met Evelyn Adell, an American who became his wife in 1909. For their honeymoon, the couple embarked on a two-year journey on horseback through Siberia, eventually reaching Irkutsk, far to the east.
In 1914, just three years after the couple's return to Paris, and almost certainly inspired by the artist's wedding journey, Gaspard painted the present work, Siberian Wedding Scene. In it he depicts a wedding procession emerging from the sanctuary of an ancient Russian church. Gaily attired in native dress, the wedding party fills the foreground of a forested landscape, blanketed in snow. Using his characteristically jewel-like hues of red, pink and blue, and painting in a dashing, painterly style, Gaspard creates a distinctive, celebratory atmosphere. For its high degree of finish and sheer exuberance, this work ranks as one of the artist's most ambitious and dramatic masterworks of village life in Russia.
Born in Vitebsk, Russia, in 1882, Gaspard became acquainted with Siberia as a young man, when he frequently toured the province with his father, a fur trader. The artist became intimately familiar with many remote and picturesque villages, and later adopted Siberia as a principal theme in his art.
After a short tenure of art study in Odessa, Gaspard traveled to Paris to complete his formal artistic training. While in France, he met Evelyn Adell, an American who became his wife in 1909. For their honeymoon, the couple embarked on a two-year journey on horseback through Siberia, eventually reaching Irkutsk, far to the east.
In 1914, just three years after the couple's return to Paris, and almost certainly inspired by the artist's wedding journey, Gaspard painted the present work, Siberian Wedding Scene. In it he depicts a wedding procession emerging from the sanctuary of an ancient Russian church. Gaily attired in native dress, the wedding party fills the foreground of a forested landscape, blanketed in snow. Using his characteristically jewel-like hues of red, pink and blue, and painting in a dashing, painterly style, Gaspard creates a distinctive, celebratory atmosphere. For its high degree of finish and sheer exuberance, this work ranks as one of the artist's most ambitious and dramatic masterworks of village life in Russia.