Alexei Alexeiévitch HARLAMOFF (1840-1925) Moody girl Mixed media on canvas, signed lower left in Cyrillic and lower right in Latin letters Representing a young girl sulking lying on the lap of her older sister, sitting near a table in an interior Around 1900 Original frame On the frame is inscribed a dedication "from Mr. Wolff / good memory / Amsterdam June 05 / 1926 Holland" over a countersignature A. Harlamoff H. 113 cm - W. 81 cm Frame: H. 118 cm - W. 90 cm MC Related work: Moody girl, oil on canvas, circa 1900, 116.8 x 88.9 cm, sold at Christie's New York, October 22, 2008, lot 121, sold for $962,500. Bibliography concerning the final work: - Work listed and reproduced in: O. Sugrobova-Roth, E. Lingenauber, Alexei Harlamoff, Catalogue raisonné 1840-1925, 2007, n°197 plate 184 (as unknown location) for the final work - G. K. Burova, O. Galonova, V. Roumyantseva, Exhibitions of Travelling Artists, Moscow, 1952, p. 365 - G. K. Burova, O. Galonova, V. Roumyantseva, Study of Periodicals and Printed Texts on Exhibitions of Travelling Artists, Moscow, 1959 - G. B. Romanov, Expositions des artistes ambulants 1871-1923, St Petersburg, 2003, p. 289, 7-327 Provenance: - Collection of Mr Wolff (Amsterdam, Netherlands), ca. 1926 - Private Parisian Collection History: Alexei Harlamoff's talent in the portrait genre was acclaimed as early as the 1860s by the Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg when he was only 20 years old. His final move to Paris at the end of 1876 gave him access to the Salon where his particular virtuosity was honoured. The representation of children and more precisely young girls took an exclusive place in the 1880s and will remain an inexhaustible inspiration for the painter throughout his career. This preparatory work for the final work exhibited in 1904-1905 at the Exhibition of Ambulant Art in Russia under No. 202, and sold at Christie's in 2008, testifies to the research undertaken by Harlamoff in the scope of gestures and gazes. By deliberately mirroring these two works, Harlamoff has changed the attitude of the little girl. With a dreamy and distracted look, the painter has chosen to put direct tension between the girl and the viewer through a most mischievous look. This preparatory study is imbued with a more complex psychology than the final work, while laying the foundations for the theatrical and mysterious atmosphere that Harlamoff likes to depict in his paintings. Two worlds confront each other between these two works, faced with the innocence of the lightness of thought comes the questioning through a glance to which the viewer would have to bring an answer. It is on this last idea that Harlamoff creates the definitive work, using his vibrant and subtle brushstrokes that give every moment the divine impression of immediacy and vitality. Our work, hitherto unknown to the art market and reference books, sheds new light on Alexei Harlamoff's artistic research. It gives to the sketch, this fulgurating speed of execution where it is possible to recognize all the genius of an artist.