Leonide Frechkop (1897-1982) - Portrait

Oil on panel depicting a young woman, signed.

Leonide FRECHKOP (1897-1982)
Painter, draftsman, engraver, decorator. In 1920, he completed his training at the Moscow Academy and received the Rome Prize. He left Russia and settled in Brussels. His preferences included compositions, figures, nudes, dancers and children, as well as flowers. Throughout his life, he explored painting in all directions. He demonstrated complete independence from any style or trend. Revolutionary to his core, he was nonetheless faithful to tradition. Works are housed at the Musée d'Ixelles and the Prints Cabinet of Brussels.

The painter Leonide Frechkop by Mario de Marchi, Knowledge and Beauty, July 1930.

I know few 'nudists' as honest and conscientious as this painter Léonide Frechkop, who, having settled with us for many years now, brought back from the depths of great Russia where he studied, a profound sense of feeling, a serene vision of things, and a passionate desire to create life without stripping it of its delightful poetry. This artist, with his very particular and accurate vision, is a relentless seeker of beautiful forms, an obstinate analyst who strives to discover in nature its greatest: its simple beauty made of rhythm and color. At first, his art was somewhat surprising. It imposed on the elite a vision so new, a conception so fundamentally different from ours, that an unspoken fear tempered the admiration of those who did not find in his works the ordinary and too easy qualities that are evident in the paintings of more traditionally cautious artists, but perhaps less confident.

Léonid Frechkop ignores fiery improvisation and noisy creation. He is too much of an analyst and a fine symphony craftsman to enjoy the extravagance of peals of thunder from lightning inspiration. Every new work is for him a new subject for meditation. Such composition, such figure, such portrait, even such landscape are the result of extensive research, scrupulous studies where the model is analyzed and scrutinized with admirable stubbornness, ignorant of discouragement.

Frechkop is one of those honest artists who want to ignore the ease of routine. He has only one desire, and a burning one at that: to achieve technical perfection through the arduous paths of imposed work. Nothing would seem stranger to him than having to adopt one of the false personalities that find the sad sources of their poor characters only in adapting to a genre. He is one of those complete artists who love to seek beauty wherever it can inspire a higher soul. A high-minded figurist, he has never disowned landscapes, to which he has dedicated admirable pages. He has the great fortune of understanding the prodigious lesson of the great masters of the Renaissance. With them as spiritual guides, he explores the many twists and turns of splendor. The lines he cherishes, these trembling lines that he knows how to render with supreme boldness and astonishing certainty of hand, are these universal lines. The sinuous curve of a body, the harmony of a joyful sway, the marvelous balance of the large masses of a landscape, enchant his mind.

The drawing and line work of the graphic designer never sacrifice color in this artist's canvases, who has managed to achieve a tasteful harmony of form and tone. Since the time when, at the Moscow School of Fine Arts, he attended the classes of the fine Impressionist Karovine, his palette has significantly evolved. His color, which until yesterday appeared cold, now exhibits such sensitivity and delicacy that only a person previously dedicated to the ongoing search for the subtleties of the prism could skillfully and rationally prune the unnecessary elements of overloaded ranges. This evolution, which perhaps no one expected, is now evident in the artist's latest works. Many had imagined the artist reaching a level of refinement that his temperament seemed unlikely to surpass. His previously somewhat muted color palette, which indulged in rather dull harmonies, now recalls in his recent pieces some isolated works from the previous period, where bold tonal contrasts imposed a clear color on an almost obsessive graphic. Now, the sought-after balance appears to be achieved, and a series of still lifes testifies to the transformation of vision that has taken place in Frechkop. The role of color in his paintings is predominant, and harmonies that were ignored in the early period give a powerful character of life to compositions of rare simplicity of elements.

During a visit to the artist's studio, the eye is particularly drawn to large figures in which he excels. Throughout his work, still lifes and flowers appear as entertainment. His palette is more focused on the execution of grand nudes and these delightful portraits where the female likeness finds a savory celebration. The painter's admiration for the great Renaissance masters, especially the beautiful Italian figurists from the schools of Padua and Venice, has led him to seek the beautiful harmonies of bodies and draperies. His main concern remains the creation of perfect compositions where the essential figure finds in the surrounding accessories the delicate atmosphere that suits it.


Dimensions: unframed: 65 cm x 50 cm


It is signed and dated 1944 in the upper right.



We estimate this work to be between 400 and 500 euros.

Auction results of Leonide FRECHKOP in Painting


Portrait of a Man with a Pipe (1928)
Leonide FRECHKOP
Oil/canvas
63 x 46 cm
Estimate: €600 - €800
Hammer price: €5,500
01/04/2025
AZ Auction
Portrait of a woman
Leonide FRECHKOP
Oil/canvas
60 x 50 cm
Estimate: €600 - €800
Hammer price: €1,200
20 April 2012
Million
Portrait of Brother and Sister (1941)
Leonide FRECHKOP
Oil/canvas
65 x 54 cm
Estimate: €500 - €700
Hammer price: €700
12/09/2017
Horta
Portrait of a little girl wearing a pink hat
Leonide FRECHKOP
Oil/canvas
55 x 45 cm
Estimate: €300 - €400
Hammer price: €650
May 17, 2017
Vanderkindere
Portrait of a Young Girl (1933)
Leonide FRECHKOP
Oil/canvas
61.5 x 50.5 cm
Estimate: €500 - €700
Hammer price: €400
11/12/2019
Vanderkindere
Portrait of a young woman wearing a fur toque (1941)
No image.

Portrait of a young woman wearing a fur hat (1941)
Leonide FRECHKOP
Oil/canvas
65.5 x 54.5 cm
Estimation: €248 - €372
Hammer price: €372
23 November 1999
Vanderkindere
Portrait of a young woman
Leonide FRECHKOP
Oil/canvas
70 x 55.5 cm
Estimate: €500 - €700
Hammer price: €270
June 17, 2019
Horta