11.05.2004
ArtDaily.com

LONDON, ENGLAND.- Sotheby’s Sale of Russian Pictures & Works of Art on Wednesday, May 26, 2004 at New Bond Street, London will be the most significant of its kind to date. This major sale, containing 496 lots, will include important paintings by top Russian painters such as Nesterov, Larionov and Shishkin. It will also include a fine section of marine paintings, with several views by the famous artist Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky. Aside from the fine and decorative works of art that make up the bulk of the sale, this year’s auction will also include a strong selection of works relating to the Ballets Russes and other Theatre Art.

Two of the sale’s highlights include the famous and well loved Russian symbolist, Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov’s Peace on Earth and Mikhail Larionov’s Through the Nets: The Bathers. Both paintings are key early 20th-century works and illustrate the alternative ways in which these artists sought to produce modern works of great originality and expressive power.

Nesterov’s (1862-1942) Peace on Earth was recently rediscovered in a private collection in the Czech Republic. It was painted in 1912 and depicts a simple Russian monk sitting in solitude on the bank of a river playing a pipe. This subject matter finds its roots in the early Romantic art of Caspar David Friedrich and the lyrical landscapes of Isaac Levitan as well as contemporary Scandinavian art. The tall, vertical format of the painting is atypical for a landscape. Nesterov has chosen it because as the viewer follows the course of the river to the horizon, the eyes are forced upwards or, on a symbolic level, led heaven-bound. The underlying message is one of the possibilities of human freedom.

The Russian Orthodox religion was the great guiding force and wellspring of Nesterov’s creative search but it was under Vasili Perov at the Moscow College of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture that he learnt how paintings could convey both a social message and also offer an emotional romance. He first found his own voice as an artist at the end of the 1880s and quickly produced some of his greatest works. The oil on canvas is estimated to fetch £500,000-£700,000.

Larionov (1881-1964), together with his life long partner and collaborator Natalia Goncharova, was an immensely influential figure in Moscow in the first decade of the 20th century and was instrumental to the development of the avant-garde movement in Russia.

Through the Nets: The Bathers was painted in 1904 and is an excellent example of Russian modernist painting. It depicts a seaside scene, with a fisherman’s net creating a diagonal grid slicing the picture into small squares. It seems that the artist painted the net first, forcing the landscape behind to be pieced together like a jigsaw, creating a tension between surface and depth. However, content - or narrative - still remains in the various beach activities shown. Through the net a bather is visible being chased by a playful dog, whilst fish are suspended from a line. Rocks and a second figure are also visible in the water. Through the Nets... was painted in the early years of the artist’s career and forms a bridge from his Impressionist style to his later neo-primitivist works. The artist repeated the subject matter a number of times and chose to exhibit the painting in a major exhibition, The Golden Fleece, in Moscow in 1909. It is estimated at £200,000-£300,000.

Another highlight of the sale is Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin’s (1831-1898) Landscape with Brook. Shishkin - Russia’s most important landscape painter - graduated from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1860 with a gold medal and was awarded a three-year (1862-1865) travel scholarship to Europe. It was during this period, in 1863, that he completed Landscape with Brook. Shishkin spent his time in the studios of European Landscape masters, including many months in the workshop of Swiss landscape artist, Rudolf Koller, which had a significant impact on his style. Shishkin was also notably influenced by the Düsseldorf school and its preoccupation with the meticulous duplication of nature. The painting is a rare example of an important piece completed during his scholarship in Switzerland and stands in contrast to the freer style of his later work of the 1870s. It is estimated to fetch £550,000-£700,000.

From the section of Marine paintings in the sale, highlights include The Imperial Yacht, The Derzhava by Lev Felixovich Lagorio (1826-1905) which is estimated to fetch £35,000-£45,000 and of the twelve paintings by Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817-1900): View of Yalta and The Firing of the Turkish Fleet by Kanaris in 1822.

Aivazovsky was born in Theodosia in the Crimea in 1817 and, after having studied at the Imperial Academy and travelled for a number of years, he returned there at the age of twenty-eight. The Crimea - in particular the towns of Yalta and Theodosia - continued to inspire him throughout his lifetime and he painted them many times from both life and memory. The first images of Yalta appear in the 1930s. Here, as so often, Aivazovsky depicts it bathed in moonlight, echoing the Romantic style that was prevalent at the time. View of Yalta is signed and dated 1867 and is estimated to fetch £250,000-£350,000.

As an Armenian, Aivazovsky was acutely aware of Greece’s unfortunate history and of the suffering the country had endured under repressive Ottoman rule. Having grown up surrounded by images of the Greek War of Independence, he went on to explore the subject and produce many images depicting both Greece and its struggle for independence throughout his life. The Firing of the Turkish Fleet by Kanaris in 1822 for example, depicts a famous incident in the Greek War of Independence, when, in June 1822, the Greek freedom fighter Konstantine Kanaris destroyed the flagship of the Ottoman Admiral by setting the ship alight and in turn killing almost 2,000 men. The painting is signed and dated 1892 and is estimated to fetch £150,000-£200,000.

The Ballets Russes and Theatre section of the sale is also strong and contains works by the most important designers for the Ballets Russes, including Alexander Benois, Natalia Goncharova and Lev Bakst. The major highlight of this section is The Little House at Kolomna by Sergei Yurievich Sudeikin (1882-1946) and is estimated to fetch £50,000-£70,000. It is the set design for the Philadelphia Academy of Music’s 1934 production of the opera Mavra by Stravinsky, which is based on Pushkin’s poem The Little House at Kolomna (1830).

The sale also contains a substantial number of works from the collection of Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin (1905-1992), the eldest son of Iola Tornaghi and the famous Russian bass singer Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin - whose collection of important Russian paintings, autograph letters, drawings and photographs were sold at Sotheby’s London, in May 2003.

Having spent much of his youth in Paris, Fedor Fedorovich left for Hollywood to follow a career in acting and is probably most famous for his role as the murderous monk in the 1986 film The Name of the Rose in which he co-starred with Sean Connery. He also appeared in the 1997 film Moonstruck as the dog walking grandfather. The collection comprises ten works by Russia’s Impressionist painter Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin (1861-1939), some of which were given to Fedor by his father. Other paintings, for example Korovin’s Still Life with Bottle of Wine, which is estimated to fetch £10,000-£15,000, came directly from the artist and bears a written dedication by Korovin in Russian, reading:

’To my most beloved friend Fedushkin, as a reminder of Spring 1925. I, Konstantin Korovin hereby confirm that I give one of my best works to F. Chaliapin junior, and to mark the occasion I said "This is for you Fedya, who understands while the artist does not understand his own work he does not keep it for himself", Korovin, Paris, 1925, 3rd rue de Chateaubriand’

The collection also contains Korovin’s Portrait of Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin, which is estimated to fetch £30,000-£50,000. Korovin’s Parisian Night Life has come from the collection of Fedor Chaliapin Senior and is estimated to fetch £25,000-£35,000.

Other highlights include paintings by Vladimir Davidovich Baranov-Rossiné (1888-1941) - several directly from the artist’s family. Also present are paintings by Boris Israilovich Anisfield (1879-1973). Flowers on Pink is by the modern Russian painter Petr Petrovich Konchalovsky (1876-1956) and is estimated to fetch £80,000-£120,000. To conclude the paintings section is a group of works by Russia’s "non-conformist" artists working underground in the Soviet Union, for example The Cross by Oscar Rabin (B.1928), which is estimated to fetch £8,000-£12,000.

From the fine section of works of art in the sale - which includes a number of works from the house of Fabergé - highlights include an Imperial diamond and platinum commemorative pendant, circa 1904. The pendant is set with miniature portraits of the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and Grand Duchess Marie Pavolvna. It was made to commemorate their union and possibly even their thirtieth anniversary that was celebrated in 1904. It is attributed to Zuiev and is estimated to fetch £8,000-£12,000.

A silver-gilt and enamel presentation plaque, inscribed ’To His Imperial Highness, Heir, Tzarevich and Grad Duke, Nicholai Alexandrovich’ (later Emperor Nicholas II) is engraved with a steamer on a river by a town and is estimated to fetch £50,000-£70,000.

Another important highlight is a monumental Imperial porcelain commemorative presentation vase and cover, which also possess the mark of Nicholas II Alexandrovich. It was made by the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in St. Petersburg in 1915. Its scale, quality and iconography would suggest that it was produced as a diplomatic gift to the French in 1915 to signify closer diplomatic relations between the two empires. The vase is a rare piece of artistic and historical importance and a testament to the superior mastery of Russia’s premier porcelain manufactory of the early 20th century. An identical vase from the same series can be found in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. This vase, which has come from a private collection in France, is estimated at £140,000-£180,000.

The works of art section also includes an important and rare collection of three personal photograph albums compiled by H.I.H. the Late Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich (1878-1918) - the third son of Emperor Alexander III Alexandrovich - and his wife Countess Brassova. Illustrated above is one of a series a photographs from the album stamped ’Brassoco/Winter 1911’, showing Grand Duke Michael with his dog and playing with his pet bear. The album is estimated to fetch £16,000-£22,000.

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