YAKOVLEV, ALEXANDER (1887-1938) The Fruit Girl of Capri Pencil, tempera and oil on canvas, 90 by 49.5 cm. Provenance: Edward Hulton Esq. Christie's London, May 1951, Lot 72. Hollywood Road Gallery, London. Acquired from the above by the father of the present owner. The Fruit Girl of Capri was probably painted in the 1920s, when Yakovlev returned to Capri at least twice, having already established a reputation as a travelling artist and connoisseur who depicted the exotic life and culture of Oriental and African peoples. He had travelled the length and breadth of Europe, Japan, Mongolia, China and northern and central Africa. The unusually colourful and exotic paintings and drawings that Yakovlev brought back from his travels not only brought him great success and financial independence, but also recognition and even the Legion of Honour medal. In France, where the artist was based from 1919, his oriental subjects were very à propos, due to the general enthusiasm for the exotic in Parisian high society, as well as for Art Deco, the new trend in visual art, fashion and design. The Fruit Girl of Capri is an excellent example of such work, combining Yakovlev's characteristic interest in painting female forms with observation of ethnographic detail in life and nature studies. There are several known compositions by the artist which represent variations on a figure carrying something on the head. From all ends of the earth — from Italy, Africa or Asia, his sun-tanned dark-skinned girls graciously balance jars, bowls and baskets on the head, allowing the artist to address an absorbing anatomical artistic challenge and at the same time create an exotic image exciting to the imagination of northern Europeans. As the girl looks around, as if by chance, at the artist behind her, there is no trace of strained effort in her elastic movement despite the heavy basket. On the contrary, embodying the ideal of Renaissance plasticity, to give stability to the moving figure Yakovlev uses the device of cross movement, known as chiasma, moving the bent leg of the walking fruit-carrier backwards and bringing the left shoulder forward. Her simple white apron reflecting midday lilac-coloured shadows, and even the reddish ripe oranges, do not appear too bright under the blinding southern sun, whitening the sea and sky in the background in an indistinguishable shining haze. The Fruit Girl of Capri is not only an especially fine work of Alexander Yakovlev, but also a rare example of an astonishingly well preserved canvas of the 1920s which has not required duplication. The excellent condition of the work is evidently attributable to the fact that the painting, which came to England in 1950, has had only one change of ownership since that time. It was formerly owned by the newspaper magnate Edward Halton, one of the wealthiest men of the mid XX century, who was torn between two passions: collecting art and horse racing, and sold the work in 1951 at a Christie's auction. The Fruit Girl of Capri has remained in a private collection since that time.