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Léopold Frédéric Léopoldowitsch Survage (French pronunciation:[leɔpɔl(d)syʁvaʒ]; 31 July 1879 – 31 October 1968) was a Russian-French painter of Finnish origin. Trained in Moscow, he identified with the Russianavant-garde before moving to Paris, where he shared a studio withAmedeo Modigliani and experimented withabstract films. He also gained commissions forSerge Diaghilev'sBallets Russes.
Survage was French,[1] of Russian-Danish-Finnish descent, born inLappeenranta, Finland (with selected references indicating a birthplace of Moscow, Russia). Variant names included Léopold Sturzwage, Leopold Sturwage, Leopoldij Sturzwasgh and Leopoldij Lvovich Sturzwage.
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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 theMoscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Introduced to the modern movement through the collections ofSergei Shchukin andIvan Morozov, he cast his lot with theRussian avant-garde and, by 1906, was loosely affiliated with the circle of the magazineZolotoye runo (Golden fleece—see alsoMaximilian Voloshin). He metAlexander Archipenko, exhibiting with him in the company ofDavid Burlyuk,Vladimir Burlyuk,Mikhail Larionov andNatalia Goncharova. With Hélène Moniuschko, later his wife, he travelled to Western Europe, visitingParis in July 1908. The couple eventually settled in Paris where Survage worked as a piano tuner and briefly attended the short-lived school run byHenri Matisse. He exhibited with theJack of Diamonds group in Moscow in 1910 and first showed his work in France—at the urging of Archipenko—in theSalon d'Automne of 1911.[2]
In 1913, Survage produced abstract compositions using color and movement to evoke a type of musical sensation. EntitledRythmes 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 theSalon d'Automne in 1913 andSalon des Indépendants in 1914. Articles on these works were published byGuillaume Apollinaire (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 theGaumont Film Company. Had he been able to raise the funds, he would have precededViking Eggeling andHans Richter as the first to develop abstract films.[2][3]
Beginning in 1917, Survage shared a studio—and a penchant for alcoholic excesses—withAmedeo Modigliani in Paris. Survage later moved toNice and, over the next eight years, produced highly structured oils and works on paper linked together by a series ofleitmotifs, 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 beenMarc Chagall's, an artist well known for his insertions of floating couples, cows, roosters, and sundryJewish iconography. By 1922, Survage had begun to move away from Cubism in favour of theneo-classical form. He was perhaps influenced by commissions forSerge Diaghilev'sBallets Russes, beginning with sets and costumes forIgor Stravinsky'sopera buffaMavra at theParis Opéra in 1922. Although mainly a painter, he also produced stage, tapestry, and textile designs during this period (notably for the house ofChanel in 1933). Toward the end of the 1930s, as a result of his contact withAndré Masson, Survage became increasingly charmed by symbols andmysticism. The curvilinear forms that had previously dominated his compositions came, once again, under the control of geometric structure.[2]
On 12 March 1963 Survage was named Officer of theLégion d'Honneur.[4] He died on 31 October 1968 in Paris.[2]
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