Georges Annenkov

(1889 - 1974)

3645

Красное шефство

The red patronage

Moscow: Mosgubshefkomissiia, 1924

304 x 232 mm. 262 pages

Edition: 2,500.

This collection of essays and texts on the importance of the Red Patronage as part of the Soviet State was designed by Annenkov in co-operation with Abramov. It is richly illustrated with photographs, mainly group-portraits, augmented by vignettes and drawings by Annenkov. In these the artist celebrates the state, the proletariat and its symbols. Next to these text-illustrations there are 10 full-page plates. The book opens with a photo-portrait of Lenin and a referential dedication implying that Lenin was still alive. This indicates the book was published by January 1924. The nine additional plates are designs by Annenkov showing the construction of airplanes as symbol of industrialization and progress, while the eight remaining plates are portrait drawings of revolutionary leaders, heroes of the Soviet State. The portraits are a political follow-up of Portraits published two years before. Among the people portrayed are Kamenev, Zinovev, and Trotsky. The portraits from The Red Patronage were re-used for the portfolio of 17 portraits which Annenkov published in 1927. At that time most of these leaders, however, had become enemies of the state. It is one explanation why this book of portraits (and a succeeding album) is such a rarity, although the artistic value is no less than of Portraits.

References:

Annenkov 1966, pp. 290 and 302.

Offenbach 2016, nr. 36