André Petroff, Russian Painter In Nice – Village On The French Riviera, 1920s–30s

André Petroff, Russian painter from Saint Petersburg – Village in the hinterland of the French Riviera, 1920s–30s

Oil on cardboard, 46 × 44 cm

Signed lower right

Painted by André Petroff, a Russian artist who fled the Revolution and settled in France, like many poets and painters of his generation — from Marc Chagall and Ossip Zadkine to Ivan Bunin and Marina Tsvetaeva — who found in the Côte d’Azur a refuge of light and artistic freedom.

The work depicts a small hillside village, likely in the area of Vence or Grasse, bathed in the golden stillness of the Riviera hinterland. The facades, built through faceted planes and warm earthy tones, convey the sun-drenched texture of stone walls and the quiet harmony of Mediterranean life. A solitary figure along the path introduces a discreet human presence within a structured and balanced composition.

For palette and construction, the painting can be dated to the late 1920s or early 1930s, a period when Petroff, by then established in France, developed a synthesis between post-Cubist structure and figurative sensitivity, marked by his attention to light and architectural rhythm.

Wooden painted frame.

Good condition.

André Petroff (Saint Petersburg 1894 – Nice 1975) studied at the Drawing School of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, where he received a gold medal in 1914. After the war and his exile, he settled in France, working between Paris and Nice, where he exhibited in 1927, 1929, 1935 and 1971. His painting, luminous and concise, translates the architecture and atmosphere of the Mediterranean landscape into a modern and harmonious vision, reflecting the spirit of the Russian artistic diaspora in France.