Explanation of the artwork in the collection of Belgazprombank:

"The corporate collection of JSC Belgazprombank includes a wide representation of artists from the Paris School, many of whom were born in Belarus. The names and works of artists like Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, and Ossip Zadkine have long been known and recognized by the public. However, there are still other artists whose art awaits an enthusiastic and attentive researcher. One such artist is Yakov Balglei. Born in Brest-Litovsk and a graduate of the Odessa Art School, he moved to Paris in 1911, joining the ranks of young, unknown foreign artists who dreamt of finding their own unique path in art, recognition, and fame in the brilliant and free atmosphere of the French capital.

Like many other immigrant painters, Balglei was influenced by European art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including the masters of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, various avant-garde movements, and, most notably, Expressionism with its heightened emotional intensity, universal sense of hopelessness, and dramatic existentialism. However, it is difficult to trace the stages of the artist's professional development consistently. The surviving paintings of Yakov Balglei from the 1910s to the early 1920s are often undated and relatively few in number because the artist frequently destroyed his works, considering them weak and imperfect. By the mid-1920s, Yakov Balglei entered a period of creative maturity, which unfortunately was short-lived as the artist's life was cut short in 1934. Additionally, during the last decade of his life, Yakov Balglei underwent a significant transformation in his art: he decisively departed from the expressionistic worldview that previously defined the artistic structure of his works and moved towards neoclassical painting.

This final stage of the artist's career is vividly represented by the painting "Girl with a Red Ribbon" in the corporate collection of JSC Belgazprombank. Although the painting is undated, its period of creation is unmistakable. The bright color palette, the sense of tranquility and harmony in the depiction, and a certain light sentimentality that pervades it allow us to attribute the work to the late 1920s to early 1930s. This significant shift in Yakov Balglei's art is traditionally associated with the artist's personal happiness, and to a large extent, this is indeed true. A happy marriage accompanied by the birth of two daughters opened up another facet of life for him—a realm ruled by harmony and love.

However, one should not overlook the general trends in the development of European art during this time, centered in Paris where Balglei lived and worked. Balglei's departure from Expressionism and his turn towards neoclassicism coincided with the overall shift in European art towards new forms of figurative representation, encompassing various forms of realism from "New Objectivity" and "Metaphysical Art" to Surrealism. The desire to return to recognizable forms was often realized through a re-embrace of classical art traditions or primitivism, which were regarded as high cultural heritage. Yakov Balglei sought influences from Impressionism and primitivism, aiming to create a painted image whose significance transcends specific space and time, as it belongs to the realm of the eternal—art.

Acquired in 2017 from a private collector in Israel, previously in France."