E.E. LANCERAY’S CREATIVE WORK IN THE GEORGIAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC (1920—1921)

The article covers the beginning of the Georgian period in the life of the famous artist Eugene E. Lanceray (1875—1946), an active participant of the exhibitions “World of Art”, an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts (1912). His work is divided into three periods: the Petersburg manor one  (including his studying in Paris and trips abroad, in Dagestan in 1912 and the Caucasian front of the First World War), the Caucasian one (after moving to Dage­stan in November 1917) and the Moscow one (after the final move to Moscow in 1934). The Caucasian period, full of works of different genres and techniques, remains the least studied, because in the Soviet times, for ideological reasons, many of its episodes were concealed. Thus, almost nothing was known about E.E. Lanceray’s trip to Baku in July 1919, about his work in the Propaganda Department under the Government of the Armed Forces of the South of Russia from September 1919, and his stay in Novorossiysk in January—March 1920. Many documents, letters, portraits were withdrawn from public collections after the repressions of the 1920s—1930s. The article shows the active cultural life of the artist before the Sovietization of Georgia in February 1921, which was not fully covered either in O.I. Podobedova’s basic monograph about the creative work of the master (1961), or in generalizing studies on the history of Georgian arts. The picture is restored taking into account E.E. Lanceray’s diary entries and correspondence, stored in different archives.

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9. A Letter of the Manager of the Expedition of Storing State Papers under the Commissariat of Finance M.K. Lemke to E.E. Lanceray of July 6, 1918, Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva (RGALI) [Russian State Archive of Literature and Art], coll. 1982, aids 1, item 10 (in Russ.).

10. E.E. Lanceray’s Sketches of Banknotes of Georgia, Armenia, etc., Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva (RGALI) [Russian State Archive of Literature and Art], coll. 1982, aids 1, item 52 (in Russ.).

11. E.E. Lanceray’s Sketches of Posters, Diplomas, etc., Rossiiskii gosudarstvennyi arkhiv literatury i iskusstva (RGALI) [Russian State Archive of Literature and Art], coll. 1982, aids 2, item 24 (in Russ.).

12. Letters of E.E. Lanceray to N.E. Lanceray 1916—1921, Otdel rukopisei Gosudarstvennogo Russkogo muzeya [Manuscripts Department of the State Russian Museum], coll. 38, item 13, 42 p. (in Russ.).

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16. Dagestan glazami Evgeniya Lansere: k 200-letiyu vkhozhdeniya Dagestana v sostav Rossiiskogo gosudarstva [Dagestan through the Eyes of Eugene Lanceray: To the 200th Anniversary of the Inclusion of Dagestan into the Russian State]. Moscow, Rudentsovykh Publ., 2013, 239 p.

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19. A Letter of E.E. Lanceray to L.S. Bakst of December 1, 1920, Otdel rukopisei Gosudarstvennoi Tret’yakovskoi galerei [Manuscripts Department of the State Tretyakov Gallery], coll. 111 (L.S. Bakst), item 1307 (in Russ.).

20. A Letter of L.S. Bakst to E.E. Lanceray of February 16, 1921, Otdel rukopisei Gosudarstvennoi Tret’yakovskoi galerei [Manuscripts Department of the State Tretyakov Gallery], coll. 111 (L.S. Bakst), item 678 (in Russ.).

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