Vasily Ivanovich Shukhaev

Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 1929
Acquired by the painter Hans Heysen, South Australia
Thence by descent
Leonard Joel Auctions, Melbourne, Estate of Hans Heysen,19 June 1970, lot 72
Geoffrey Frew, Melbourne
Thence by descent 

Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts de Bruxelles,  Exposition d'Art Russe Ancien et Moderne, May-June 1928, no.831, listed
Sydney, Macquarie Galleries, Paintings and Drawings by Basil Schoukhaeff, 1 - 17 August 1929, no.5
Sydney, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Special Exhibition of Contemporary British and Continental Artists, 19 October - 31 December 1938

Russian Art: Pictures by Schoukhaeff, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 1929, p.6
European Art, Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 1938, p.11
In Modern Style, The Argus, Melbourne, October 1937, p.13
New Heysen Collection at National Gallery, The Advertiser, Adelaide 4^th June 1942
J.Hylton, Nora Heysen: Light and Life, Wakefield Press, South Australia, 2011, illustrated p.55 (detail)

Structural condition The canvas is unlined and the turnover and tacking edges have been strengthened with a thin strip-lining. This is ensuring a secure structural support and the faint overall pattern of craquelure is stable and is not visually distracting. The canvas is inscribed on the reverse. Paint surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer and only minimal retouchings are visible under ultra-violet light. There is a line of five small retouchings running across the sky which are approximately 24 cms below the upper horizontal framing edge. There is also a small retouching in the upper left corner and a very thin vertical line approximately 4 cm in length, also in the sky and approximately 34 cm in from the right vertical framing edge. There are other tiny spots of inpainting. Summary The painting is therefore in very good and stable condition and no further work is required.
"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."

The present work was included in the exhibition of Shukhaev’s works held at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney in August 1929 and it remained in Australia until now. At the exhibition it was purchased by the noted German-Australian painter Hans Heysen (fig.1), and was then exhibited as part of his collection at the National Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney in 1938. His daughter, Nora Heysen, also a well-known painter, included a section of this painting in one of her best-known works, Still Life of 1933 (fig.2).

On both occasions when it was exhibited, this fine View of Cassis garnered superlative reviews. In 1929, a critic admired 'the heavy, rain-filled clouds [that] have a wonderful sense of depth and movement, and give an impressive spaciousness to the landscape that lies spread out below…' (Sydney Morning Herald, 1 August 1929, p.6). In 1938, Shukaev's work was considered 'impressive': 'the details of the panoramic view have been set forth in a precise and detailed, yet intensely personal way, and the romantic flying clouds in the sky make a fine contrast with the prosaic record of things seen below…' (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 October 1929, p.11).

Shukhaev was born into a poor family, and was orphaned early in life. However, his artistic gifts took him to the Stroganov Art School in Moscow, where he studied under Konstantin Korovin. From there he moved to the Imperial Academy, where he enrolled in the class of Dimitri Kardovsky in the same year as Alexander Yakovlev, who was to become not only his close friend but an artistic ally (fig.3). Shukhaev left the Academy for Italy in 1912, where he was soon joined by Yakovlev. Together they explored the country and studied its artistic heritage at first hand. Italian renaissance art became the primary influence on their work, and as a direct result of their trip they painted their monumental double self-portrait in the role of the Harlequin and Pierrot, now one of the masterpieces of the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg.

In 1921 Shukhaev and Yakovlev moved to Paris, where they shared a studio and exhibited actively. Between 1928 and 1930 they journeyed through the south of France together, creating a cycle of paintings and drawings, amongst which this View of Cassis and another view of Collioure of the same dimensions, now in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, are prominent. 

Like many Russians of his generation, Shukhaev longed to return to his homeland, and in 1935 he did so, trying to apply his neo-classical style to the demands of socialist realism for a short time. In 1937 he was arrested and sent to the gulag in Magadan. Remarkably, he survived. He was released a decade later, settled in Tbilisi in Georgia, and continued to paint until his death in 1973.