Léon Zeytline (1885–1962) - Syrinx Escaping From Pan - Ink Wash And Gouache - Circa 1905

Ink wash enhanced with white gouache by Léon Zeytline, a Franco-Russian painter born in Moscow in 1885. He studied under the Romantic painter Ivan Aivazovsky in 1897 and was forced to join the Moscow School of Painting upon the latter’s death in 1900. Now a student of the “Ambulants,” including Arkhipov, Kassatkine, and Ivanov, he absorbed their techniques, which were close to those of the Naturalists. After graduating, he settled in Paris in 1906 until his marriage in 1925, painting the Paris of the Belle Époque—a significant collection of which is on display at the Musée Carnavalet—before finding refuge in Alsace until his death, where he painted primarily seascapes. This work is reminiscent of an academic drawing likely created early in his career.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Book One: “In Arcadia, a small Greek province with a pastoral economy in the center of the Peloponnese, Pan takes on the role of promoting the fertility of the herds. But Pan is frightening and obscene; his eroticism is brutal. His appearance triggers panic. He is in love with the nymph Syrinx, but she would rather throw herself into the river Ladon than yield to him. Where she disappeared, reeds grew, rustling in the wind. The unfortunate Pan gathered a few of them and consoled himself with this flute, which he named Syrinx." Once the flute was in his possession, Pan found his balance in it and could not part with it, revealing the complex and essential bond between the god and music.

Here, Pan emerges from the depths of the clearing, his body and posture demonic, his left hand poised to seize Syrinx. In the background, with which he blends, the forest is dense, dangerous, unpredictable. Bathing among the reeds of the River Ladon, seven naked nymphs wearing laurel wreaths are startled by the satyr’s appearance. They are frightened; one of them has even fainted—all but one. Syrinx, the admonisher, smiles at the viewer; her face shows not a trace of fear. Her plan is about to be carried out: she is about to transform into a reed. The highlights of white gouache depict the rustling of the wind mingling with the reeds and the imminent transformation. The scene resembles the 18th-century composition by Nicolas Bertin, housed at the Louvre.

Signed “LEON ZEYTLINE” lower right.

Exhibitions:

MBA Mulhouse: https://chr.grandest.fr/evenements/exposition_leon_zeytline_la_vie_parisienne/

Musée Fournaise in Chatou: https://www.musee-fournaise.com/decouvrir-le-musee/expositions-passees/bons-baisers-de-paris-par-leon-zeytline-2017/