*FALK, ROBERT (1886-1958) Self-portrait in a Parisian Café Oil on canvas, 65.5 by 82 cm. Related literature: For similar works, see A.V. Schekin-Krotova, My Falk, Moscow, 2005, p. 67. D. Sarabianov, Yu. Didenko, R. Falk. Complete Catalogue of Works, Moscow, 2006, p. 647. “I like to paint people more than anything”, Robert Falk used to say. This applies equally to his self-portraits, of which he painted many during his years in France. Falk came to Paris in 1928 at a time when the growing expansion of official art, on the one hand, and increasing abstraction and refinement of the late avant-garde, on the other, compelled artists either to find some compromise or seek new directions. Fate was kind to Falk — his prolonged stay in France proved to be providential and marked a turning point in his artistic career. Falk was already a mature artist when he settled in Paris, but the years in France had a tremendous influence on his work, and gave the artist confidence in his choice. Beautiful and bustling Paris excited Falk. He changed his studio thirteen times in these ten years so that he could live in different parts of the city and absorb its atmosphere. The artist paid particular attention to the experiences of everyday life. He would walk along the boulevards and embankments, looking at building sites and railways, factories with smoking chimney-stacks and the workers' quarters and, of course, the innumerable cafes, bistros and bars. Falk already had a trained eye, but his vision changed under the impression of contemporary art and the treasures of the Louvre. The artist's interest focused more and more on classic art. It is from the Old Masters that Falk derived his very particular sense of light, which is not so much physical as spiritual in nature, an inner light. This is especially true for Rembrandt. Falk admitted that in his youth, he neither understood nor admired Rembrandt. Later however, he placed Rembrandt above all other painters. The years in France are reflected in a particular way in his series of self-portraits. These works share an interesting affinity and tes- tify to the intense inner life of the artist. Different in character and mood, his Self-Portrait with a Pipe, Self-Portrait in a Grey Hat, Self-Portrait with an African Sculpture, Self-Portrait in a Fez, and many other pictures of himself, served the artist as a means of under- standing his own self in time. The artist's condition is motivated here not so much by the external subject, as by inner psychology. Although some portraits contain elements of genre painting, only the self-portrait Self-Portrait in a Parisian Café can be considered a finished example of genre painting combined with the artist's self-reflection. Painted in 1937, Self-Portrait in a Parisian Café represents an attempt to find something new, to move beyond his earlier self-portraits. The artist is depicted sitting at a cafe table with two women, an apparent reference to his Self-Portrait with Female Figures (1933), where Falk is caught in a moment of reflection, while the women shimmer behind his back like phantoms of the past and present. But on the painting presented for auction, the artist does not strive to find his place in some metaphysical space, does not disrupt the flow and daily pace of place. The choice of composition is consciously random. Dressed in the same brown suit and reddish tie as in the most famous of his Parisian self-portraits, the slight incline of Falk's figure is not without elegance. But the pose itself, like the downcast eyes, can only be interpreted as a turning point in a story of which the viewer knows nothing. One of the artist's companions looks sadly at him from under her hat, the other is engrossed in contemplation of her own glass. The people at the next table are whispering among themselves, and the man cut off by the edge of the picture is preoccupied with his newspaper. Clearly, nothing significant or out of the ordinary is happening. The flexible brush-strokes and often contrasting light colours emphasise the luminous harmony of the sad passing moment which forms the focus of this picture. The use of a complex combination of colours to express the richness and diversity of the real world becomes a conscious objective here for Falk. The artist clearly feels a need to convey the flux of life, the actual process of its movement. In Self-Portrait in a Parisian Café he succeeds in this. At this time Falk began to take a particular interest in the problem of the relationship between the figure and the interior. It is no accident that the milieu identified by objects is inhabited primarily by figures from his Parisian group portraits. However, Falk needs the interior of the cafe not to make the scene of the action more concrete, but to express the sense of disharmony between the person and his environment. The three main figures are arranged next to each other at the table, but appear somewhat alienated from one another. The point here is not only that the motif of a shared meal does not unite them in shared action — they are alienated emotionally, since the artist — the central figure of the composition — is absorbed in himself. There is no hint of tragedy here, however; the sad thoughtfulness of the figures seated at the table has more of the character of a Renoir study. Softness pervades all the elements of this scene, which has an airiness and inner radiance. The artist softens the dominant grey of the figures, filling the background with tints of pink and green, and the colours acquire a refined restraint corresponding to the general mood of the picture. This harmonious sense of the quiet life of nature pervading Self-Portrait in a Parisian Café, the focus on inner existence and, at the same time, immersion in the real world of objects are the key elements which distinguish the artist's best Parisian portraits, landscapes and still lifes.