Léopold Frédéric Léopoldowitsch Survage (; 31 July 1879 – 31 October 1968) was a Russian-French painter of Finnish origin. Trained in Moscow, he identified with the Russian

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

before moving to Paris, where he shared a studio with

Amedeo Modigliani Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (; ; 12 July 1884 – 24 January 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor of the École de Paris who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern art, modern style characterized by a surre ...

and experimented with

abstract film Abstract may refer to: *"Abstract", a 2017 episode of the animated television series ''Adventure Time'' * ''Abstract'' (album), 1962 album by Joe Harriott * Abstract algebra, sets with specific operations acting on their elements * Abstract of ti ...

s. He also gained commissions for

Serge Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario an ...

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

Nationality

Survage was French, of Russian- Danish- Finnish descent, born in

Lappeenranta Lappeenranta (; ) is a city in Finland and the regional capital of South Karelia. It is located in the southeastern interior of the country and in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Lappeenranta is approximately , while the Lappeenranta sub-r ...

, Finland (with selected references indicating a birthplace of Moscow, Russia). Variant names included Léopold Sturzwage, Leopold Sturwage, Leopoldij Sturzwasgh and Leopoldij Lvovich Sturzwage.

Biography

At a young age, Survage was directed to enter the piano factory operated by his Finnish father. He learned to play the piano, then completed a commercial diploma in 1897. After a severe illness at the age of 22, Survage rethought his career and entered the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Introduced to the modern movement through the collections of Sergei Shchukin and Ivan Morozov, he cast his lot with the

Russian avant-garde The Russian avant-garde was a large, influential wave of avant-garde modern art that flourished in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, approximately from 1890 to 1930—although some have placed its beginning as early as 1850 and its e ...

and, by 1906, was loosely affiliated with the circle of the magazine ''Zolotoye runo'' (''Golden fleece''—see also Maximilian Voloshin). He met

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian-American avant-garde artist, sculpture, sculptor, and graphic designer, graphic artist, active in France and the United States. He was one of the first to apply the principles o ...

, exhibiting with him in the company of David Burlyuk, Vladimir Burlyuk,

Mikhail Larionov Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov (; – May 10, 1964) was a Russian avant-garde painter who worked with radical exhibitors and pioneered the first approach to abstract Russian art. He was founding member of two important artistic groups Knave ...

and

Natalia Goncharova Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (, ; 3 July 188117 October 1962) was a Russian avant-garde artist, painter, costume designer, writer, illustrator, and set designer. Goncharova's lifelong partner was fellow Russian avant-garde artist Mikhail Lariono ...

. With Hélène Moniuschko, later his wife, he travelled to Western Europe, visiting

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in July 1908. The couple eventually settled in Paris where Survage worked as a piano tuner and briefly attended the short-lived school run by

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

. He exhibited with the Jack of Diamonds group in Moscow in 1910 and first showed his work in France—at the urging of Archipenko—in the Salon d'Automne of 1911.Daniel Robbins, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, MoMA, 2009
/ref> In 1913, Survage produced abstract compositions using color and movement to evoke a type of musical sensation. Entitled ''Rythmes colorés'', he planned to animate these illustrations by means of film to form "symphonies en couleur". He saw these abstract images as flowing together, but he exhibited the ink wash drawings separately at the Salon d'Automne in 1913 and

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained, and an alternative name for a living room. The name i ...

in 1914. Articles on these works were published by

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire (; ; born Kostrowicki; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist and art critic of Poland, Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the ...

(''Paris-J.'', July 1914) and Survage himself (''Soirées Paris'', July–August 1914). In June 1914, in order to develop his idea, Survage unsuccessfully applied for a patent to the

Gaumont Film Company Gaumont SA () is a French film and television production and distribution company headquartered in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Founded by the engineer-turned-inventor Léon Gaumont (1864–1946) in 1895, it is the oldest extant film company in ...

. Had he been able to raise the funds, he would have preceded Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter as the first to develop abstract films. Beginning in 1917, Survage shared a studio—and a penchant for alcoholic excesses—with

in Paris. Survage later moved to

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one millionleitmotifs, repeating groups of symbolic elements—man, sea, building, flower, window, curtain, bird—as if they were protagonists in a series of moving images. The influence may have been

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal; – 28 March 1985) was a Russian and French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with the School of Paris, École de Paris, as well as several major art movement, artistic styles and created ...

's, an artist well known for his insertions of floating couples, cows, roosters, and sundry

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

iconography. By 1922, Survage had begun to move away from Cubism in favour of the neo-classical form. He was perhaps influenced by commissions for

, beginning with sets and costumes for

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

opera buffa Opera buffa (, "comic opera"; : ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramma bernesc ...

Mavra at the

Paris Opéra The Paris Opera ( ) is the primary opera and ballet company of France. It was founded in 1669 by Louis XIV as the , and shortly thereafter was placed under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Lully and officially renamed the , but continued to be kn ...

in 1922. Although mainly a painter, he also produced stage, tapestry, and textile designs during this period (notably for the house of

Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...

in 1933). Toward the end of the 1930s, as a result of his contact with

André Masson André-Aimé-René Masson (; 4 January 1896 – 28 October 1987) was a French artist. Biography Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but when he was eight his father's work took the family first briefly to Lille and then to Brus ...

, Survage became increasingly charmed by symbols and

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...

. The curvilinear forms that had previously dominated his compositions came, once again, under the control of geometric structure. On 12 March 1963 Survage was named Officer of the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

.Base Léonore, Archives Nationales, site de Fontainebleau
/ref> He died on 31 October 1968 in Paris.

Selected exhibitions

* 1968: ''Musée des beaux-arts'', Lyon * 1930: ''Museum of Modern Art'', New York * 1929: ''Knoedler Gallery'', New York * 1920: ''Galerie de L'Effort Moderne'', Paris * 1914: ''Salon des Indépendants'', Paris * 1913: ''Salon d'Automne'', Paris

Selected collections

* ''Musée national d'art moderne Georges Pompidou'', Paris * ''Bezalel Museum'', Jerusalem * ''Tretyakov Gallery'', Moscow * ''Musée des beaux-arts'', Lyon * ''Musée du Petit Palais'', Geneva * ''Musée national d'art moderne'', Paris * ''San Francisco Museum of Modern Art'' * ''Museum of Modern Art'', New York * ''National Museum of Arts'', Moscow * ''National Museum'', Athens

Literature

* ''Artistes russes de l'École de Paris'' xhibition catalogue Geneva: Musée d'art moderne, 1989. * ''Léopold Survage'' xhibition catalogue Lyon: Musée des beaux-arts, 1968. * ''Léopold Survage: aquarelles, peintures, dessins'' etrospective exhibition Nice: Direction des musées de Nice, 1975. * ''Les lumières de Léopold Survage: oeuvres, 1910-1932'' xhibition catalogue Aix-en-Provence: Galerie d'art du Conseil général des Bouches-du-Rhône, 2001. * Putnam, Samuel. ''The Glistening Bridge: Léopold Survage and the Spatial Problem in Painting''. New York: Covici-Friede, 1929
(online)
* Seyrès, Hélène (ed.). ''Écrits sur la peinture: Léopold Survage. Paris: L'Archipel, 1992. * Warnod, Jeanine. ''Survage''. Brussels: A. de Rache, 1983.

References

External links

MoMA.org
(Léopold Survage)

(Léopold Survage)
Léopold Survage exhibition catalogs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Survage, Leopold 20th-century French painters French male painters 20th-century Russian painters Painters from the Russian Empire 20th-century Finnish painters Russian cubist artists French cubist artists Finnist cubist artists Finnish cubist artists Abstract animators Russian avant-garde Russian abstract painters Finnish abstract painters French abstract painters Officers of the Legion of Honour Finnish people of Danish descent French people of Finnish descent French people of Danish descent French people of Russian descent Russian people of Danish descent Russian people of Finnish descent 1879 births 1968 deaths Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France