Viktor Michailowitsch Shmokhin (1940) - „Девушка с попугаями“ („Mädchen mit Papageien“)

Viktor Michailowitsch Shmokhin (rus. Шмохин), Russian painter and graphic artist (1940 Baku – 2022)
“Girl with Parrots” (rus. „Девушка с попугаями“), 1990
Oil on canvas

Dimensions: image size 50.5 × 35 cm (H × W), with frame 53.6 × 38.5 × 2 cm

Signature: lower right in black, signed and dated “В. Шмохин · 1990” (V. Shmokhin · 1990).
Back: on the canvas handwritten note “В. Шмохин / Москва / Россия” (V. Shmokhin / Moscow / Russia), title “Девушка с попугаями” (Girl with Parrots), “1990”, “Х./Масло” (abbreviation for “Canvas / Oil”, i.e. oil on canvas).

About the work:
The painting depicts a young woman in a three-quarter view with a slightly tilted head and downcast gaze. Her face is finely and plastically modeled, with green, violet and pink tones. Surrounding her is a world of circus and fairground: two parrots on a perch, colorful bead necklaces, streamers, sparks, a Harlequin diamond pattern, and in the upper right a small, gray-painted juggler figure balancing spheres. The background is composed of angular, cubistically displaced planes in night blue, black and gray.

The tension of the painting lies in the contrast: everything around the woman is colorful, lively and festive, while she herself remains still, serious and inward-looking, not perceiving either the birds or the observer. The tension also arises from the contrast: the circus motifs and quiet melancholy recall Picasso’s Cirkus or Harlequin pictures from the Rose Period. The gray figure in the upper right with its elongated, mask-like face evokes Modigliani and forms a quiet counterpoint to the colorful main figure.

The circus is one of the central themes in the artist’s body of work. A work with a similar theme — “Clown in Costume” — was valued at roughly €1,300.

About the artist:
Viktor Shmokhin was born on May 2, 1940 in Baku and lived and worked in Moscow. He studied at the Asimsade Art School in Baku (1962–1965), at the Moscow Art School “In Memory of 1905” (1965–1966) and at the graphic faculty of the Moscow Surikov Institute in the printmaking workshop with academician E. A. Kibrik (1966–1972). Since 1975 he was a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR; in 2004 he was named Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. Since 1966 he participated in regional, national and international exhibitions. His works are in museums, galleries and private collections in Russia and abroad. He is listed in the Russian Art Archive Network (Garage Museum, Moscow).

Provenance: Private collection in southern Germany.

Condition: Good, age-appropriate condition. Paint layer stable, no visible paint loss. Frame shows minor signs of use (tiny wood worm holes).

Shipping: The painting will be carefully packaged in the original frame.