Monogram at lower left: М.Л. 1902.

On reverse side: Larionoff 9456 Leipner from Mr. Lock ss 23 ¾ by 33 ¾

A Time to Gather. 2007, No. 104 (ill., p. 153).

Of Larionov’s habit of changing the dates on his canvases, we have this recollection from the artist Gerta Nemenova, who visited Goncharova and Larionov in Paris: “Once I was in their studio, and he changed the date in the signature. I asked why—and he really let me have it.” On the work here, traces of an earlier signature can be seen through the layer of zinc white that bears the artist’s initials and date, which suggests the complicated history of its creation. In all likelihood, the painting is one of the early Tiraspol nature studies, altered in composition and type in Paris in the late 1920s when the artist, in an upsurge of creativity, was immersed in the atmosphere of his early things, shipments of which he was then receiving from Moscow. It cannot be ruled out that work on the picture went on, with breaks, over several years.