Date: c. 1922
Size: Image: 6 x 7.75 inches; Sheet: 9 x 11.5 inches
Artist: Nikolay Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky
Jar-Ptitza [Жаръ-Птица; Fire-Bird] was a Russian emmigrant literary magazine published in Berlin between August 1921 and January 1926. By the end of its run, a total of fourteen issues had been printed. Depending on the type of illustration, three different kinds of paper were used, varying from a glossy finish to a more porous paper. The magazine ran articles on artists' biographies, poems and prose, and ballet and theatre shows, publishing art produced by Russian painters, sculptors, writers, and photographers. Their target audience being Russian emigrants from the 1918 November Revolution, texts and captions were written in Russian. However, partial translations in German, English, and French resulted once they began to distribute in New York, London, and Paris. Editor and publisher: A.E. Kogan.
Monoskop explains the reason for creating a Russian magazine in Germany: "In early 1920s, large Russian community had settled in Germany. Hyperinflation turned the country into the publishers’ paradise, as printing was much cheaper there than in any other European country. This caused real boom of Russian books: about 50 Russian publishing houses worked in Berlin only." (monoskop.org)
Nikolay Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky (1868–1945) "painted mostly genre paintings, especially of the education of peasant children, portraits, and impressionistic landscapes studies. He became pedagogue and academician in 1903. He was an active Member of the Academy of Arts in 1914. Since 1921, he lived in Riga. [He] died in 1945 in Berlin." The sheet is in great condition and is ready to be framed!