Niko Pirosmani’s work Woman with Tambourine to be exposed for auction
By Mariam Chanishvili
Wednesday, November 7
“Georgian Woman with a Tambourine” – by the Georgian artist, Niko Pirosmani will be exposed at the Sotheby’s Auction in London on November 27.
The initial price of the work is 650-900 thousand USD.
According to the information on Sotheby’s website, Woman with Tambourine was stored in the private collection of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig for many years.
“Georgian Woman with a Tambourine” by Pirosmanashvili was acquired by Stefan Zweig in Russia in 1928; later it was given to Harry Zohn by Friderike Maria Zweig in 1954; and then donated by Harry Zohn to the Zweig Room, Reed Library at Fredonia in 1981.
The Austrian author, Stefan Zweig was introduced to the works of Niko Pirosmani in 1928 during a visit to Moscow for the centenary celebrations of the birth of Leo Tolstoy. Zweig, who admired primitive art, saw Pirosmani’s works in the Tretyakov Gallery.
Following Zweig’s death in 1942 the painting remained in the possession of his first wife Friderike Maria Zweig until it was gifted to Harry Zohn in 1953.
Niko Pirosmani was born in 1862. Pirosmani was a self-educated artist, who invented a new painting technique, now famous worldwide for his primitivist works. He lived and died in poverty, never recognized by his countrymen while alive.
From October 26, 2018, until January 27, 2019, Albertina Museum in Vienna hosts Niko Pirosmanashvili’s exhibition “A Wanderer Between Worlds”.
The exhibition features 29 paintings from the collection of Georgian National Museum Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts. The handbook (Paris, 1972) titled "Pirosmanashvili 1914" made by Ilia Zdanevich is presented as well.
