Color lithograph on Arches handmade vellum paper, 75 x 55 cm within a passe-partout measuring 90 x 60 cm; limited edition of 2,000 copies.
An exclusive edition for the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, certified by the museum’s dry seal in the center below the composition; produced by Atelier Mourlot—with the dry seal “M” on the left, and the gallery’s dry seal on the right.
Official museum edition. The State Russian Museum strictly enforces the rights to Malevich’s images.
“Farmer” is one of the most iconic works from Kazimir Malevich’s later period, originating from the so-called second peasant cycle.
After a period of radical Suprematism (represented by pure geometric forms), Malevich returned to depicting human figures in the 1920s and 1930s.
This work was created at a time when Socialist Realism was being imposed in the Soviet Union, and the avant-garde was beginning to face persecution. Malevich, who himself had Polish roots and was raised in the countryside, was deeply affected by the tragedy of forced collectivization. The faceless peasant figures are often interpreted as a symbol of the loss of agency, the “man-machine,” or a silent witness to history.
Malevich’s paintings, though seemingly simple, are extremely challenging to reproduce using printmaking techniques. Mourlot was famous for applying multiple layers of color, which allowed him to achieve an almost “oil-painting-like” depth on paper. At Mourlot, artisans (lithographers) collaborated with experts to manually select pigments matching the originals from the St. Petersburg warehouses.
The State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg’s choice of Atelier Mourlot was no accident. It represents a partnership between two giants: the custodian of the largest collection of Russian avant-garde art and the studio that defined the concept of “artistic printmaking” in the 20th century.
The original oil painting is located in St. Petersburg and rarely leaves the museum. Thanks to the presence of the Mourlot and Russian Museum seals, the lithograph on offer is a work of very high catalog standard.
