Fortified Town

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FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Gritchenko launched his painting career in 1910s Moscow, where his relationships with collectors Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov afforded him simultaneous intimacy with French modernism and Orthodox icon painting. In 1919, following the Russian revolutions, Gritchenko fled to the Mediterranean, where he painted a series of historical sites. Fortified Town shows the Greek city of Mystras, which served as the citadel for Crusader, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Venetian powers. Gritchenko's painting is a site-appropriate fusion of cubism, Orthodox icons, and Italian Renaissance painting, traditions that he believed shared the ability to reveal the inner essence of their subjects.

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