“THE HEAD OF AN ARMENIAN WOMAN”

Armenian painter Alexander Bazhbeuk-Melikyan (1891-1966) painted this canvas in his early years. It was first presented to the public at the exhibition organized in 1917 in Tiflis. This is one of the rare objects which purchase history is known. We read about it in the memoirs of Georgian artist Lado Gudiashvili: “Hovhannes Toumanian chose and bought this canvas during his visit to the exhibition. He met us and was very pleased with our friendship. After a short talk, the poet asked Sasha to accompany him to see our paintings”.

His daughter Zuleika estimates that Bazhbeuk-Melikyan painted thousands of canvases, but ruthlessly pruned them down to about a hundred. Given his perfectionism, every time he created a new work, he would go over his old paintings and destroy any that did not meet his uncompromising standard. Only 110 works could be placed on the walls of his room that is why at the end of his life, the number of his paintings was the same - 110.

We can assume that the young artist sold this canvas to Toumanian just out of his respect to him. And now, it is at our museum, in addition to the mentioned 110.

Bazhbeuk-Melikyan is noted for his depiction of the female figure. His works are luscious executed with dynamic and impulsive strokes and infused with colour.

His paintings are full of bright multicoloured palette.
It is unknown who the woman in the picture is.

Dimensions: Canvas-26x22 cm, the outer edge of the frame - 31x26.5 cm, the inner one - 24.5x20.5 cm.
The object was purchased from the poet's family in 1989.