EUGÈNE BERMAN (1899-1972)

COLONNA ANTONINA AL TRAMONTO
With a further study of the Column in pen & ink verso
Signed with initials & dated l.m. E.B. / 1958
Signed & inscribed verso E.B. / 1958/ Colonna antonina al Tramonto 
Watercolour with pen & ink
26 x 19 cm
 
PROVENANCE
Graham Snow (1948-2025), Dorset
 
LITERATURE:
Cf. The Graphic Work of Eugene Berman, New York (1971), pp.224-225
 
 
 
 
 
The present work depicts Rome's Antonina Column under scaffolding during a restoration project. Bermann drew a number of sketches of this scene in 1958, of varying compositions, and painted a version in oils which was dated to February of 1959, and titled by the artist 'Colonna Romana in Restauro / 'The Column in Scaffolding.' That painting sold at Casa d'Aste Capitolium Art, Rome, 30.01-27.02.2020, lot 361 (see final image above).
 
 
 
Eugene Gustavovitch Berman was born in St Petersburg, but was sent off at a young age by his wealthy stepfather to study art in Germany, Switzerland and France, together with his brother Leonid. Upon the brothers’ return to Russia, they studied under P.S. Naumoff, a prominent realist painter, but the 1918 Revolution led to the family escaping the country to Paris. Here, Berman enrolled at the Académie Ranson, where he came under the tutelage and strong influence of the artists associated with Les Nabis, Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard.
 
 
Eugene also studied during this period under Emilio Terry, the architect responsible for the so-called ‘Louis XVII’ style, a sort of early post-modernism which fused the influences of numerous historical traditions in a fantastical manner. Terry took Berman to Italy for the first time, where the young artist saw works by Guercino, Bernini, Tiepolo and Guardi, all of which informed his increasingly confident and distinctive personal taste. Berman's first group exhibition was a show at the Durer Gallery in Paris featuring the ‘Neo-Romantics’, a group which included Pavel Tchelitchew and Christian Bérard among others. The movement more of a loose-knit collection of similarly inspired painters than a formal group, was characterised by their rejection of the advance of Abstractionism in favour of figurative art that looked to bygone centuries for inspiration.
 
 
The success from Berman’s first exhibition led to his first solo show at the Galerie l'Etoile, and the commercial success of that show in turn provided him with the opportunity to travel to the United States. By 1932 Berman was in America and was offered an exhibition at the Julian Levy Gallery in New York. His bold landscapes and architectural paintings provided a visual commentary on the decay of the modern world, with fantastical ruins peopled by forlorn figures. Berman moved to the United States in 1935 and continued to exhibit in Levy's gallery. He was commissioned to provide illustrations for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Town and Country during this period, and also created sets for several ballet companies and the Metropolitan Opera. His theatrical projects brought him into collaboration with the composer Igor Stravinsky, with whom he would continue to collaborate almost to the end of his life. Berman continued to design theatrical sets for The Metropolitan Opera up until the late 1950s, and meanwhile, his reputation continued to grow, leading to a solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago.
 
 
Berman settled in California in the early 1940s, and a Guggenheim fellowship that was awarded in 1947 led to his exploring the rugged Southwest of the USA, where he at last encountered the sprawling desert vistas that were so similar to those he had painted but never actually seen in person. The paintings that came from this trip were an entirely original juxtaposition of Hollywood theatricality and vast arid landscape settings, and several were exhibited to acclaim at Knoedler’s in New York. Shortly after the trip, Berman married Ona Munson, the actress who had shot to fame for playing Belle in Gone with the Wind. Her death in 1955 spurred Berman top emigrate to Rome, where he remained for the rest of his life. n 1962 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Thereafter he only returned to the United States to renew his citizenship or to design the sets for Stravinsky's chamber opera ballet, Renard. Berman spent the last few years of his life travelling through Egypt and Libya. In 1972 he passed away in Rome.