Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon

Collection of Natan Fedorowski, Berlin
Sale: Sotheby's London, November 24, 1992, lot 72, illustrated
Acquired directly from the above sale by the present owner

This painting is in beautiful condition. The canvas is unlined and seems to be stretched on its original stretcher. The paint layer is stable and appears to be clean, although it is not varnished. The signature in the lower right has been tested for age and is found to be period and authentic. There do not appear to be any retouches and this picture is in almost perfect condition. It could be lightly cleaned, but care needs to be taken with varnish since pictures like this look better with less varnish. A few tiny retouches could be applied to a few small spots to the center sky and in the lower right foreground. The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

A former architecture student, Konstantin Yuon was especially captivated by the architecture of ancient Rus', and he sought to convey in his pictures the poetic charm of the Russian provinces. From the 1890s he travelled around the country's oldest cities and religious sites, including Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra north of Moscow, where he lived in 1903, 1911 and between 1918-1921. It is no surprise therefore that the monastery complex became one of Yuon's favorite subjects and one he returned to repeatedly throughout his life. With its brightly painted walls and gilt cupolas, it provided Yuon with the perfect means of developing his approach to modern landscape painting, combining an Impressionistic technique with elements of Realism found in the pictures of the Wanderers. For Yuon, the effect of authenticity was of paramount importance. Details should be "woven into the fabric of the picture" and not detract from the overall impression of bustling daily life in complete visual harmony with its surroundings. Patches of color break through the bleak winter landscape to set a nostalgic mood.

The composition is characterized by the elevated perspective typical of Yuon's landscapes and scored by strong diagonals to enhance the sense of movement—one of the features which the artist identified as integral to his art. As Alexander Benois once wrote of Yuon's pictures depicting Sergiyev Posad: "The troikas are actually travelling along the road, a myriad of figures are actually moving, and this conveys the nature of a great, vigorous, purely Russian joyfulness" (Alexander Benois, "Khudozhestvennye pis'ma," Rech', March 4, 1911).