Drawing “Autumn”

The artwork was created to mark the 300th anniversary of the first publication of Antonio Vivaldi's celebrated collection of twelve concertos, Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention). The first four concertos, better known as Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons), have inspired listeners for three centuries through their musical dialogue between tradition and innovation, a dialogue that finds an echo in the work of Konstantin Chaykin. In 2021, the master patented a unique perpetual calendar in which each season is given its own dial, embodying the logic of the watch movement within the very structure of the annual Universum, though the realisation of this idea in metal was postponed.

Chaykin gave it its first embodiment in artwork: the canvas Autumn debuted at his solo exhibition last year. This drawing, a preparatory graphic artwork for the full-scale artwork, is rendered in a warm palette recalling early autumn, with its golden foliage, sunlit days, and first frosts. It is devoted to the ‘Autumn’ calendar module created for Chaykin's ‘Four Seasons’ watch, and so records an important stage of inventive translation. Nature's annual Universum, celebrated by Vivaldi in music, here acquires an architecture traced with a compass, and the seasonal turn of colour finds its counterpart in the constructive turn of the dials. The watercolour drawing was sold at the Phillips with Bacs & Russo Charity Auction in 2025 for CHF 21,000.