Nikolai Fedorovich Sazonov (1843-1902) was one of the leading actors of the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, having gained fame for his performances in musical comedies, a popular genre during the 1870s, as well as for more serious roles in plays by Ostrovsky and Chekhov, among others. Repin and Sazonov most probably met for the first time when the artist designed the make-up for Sazonov’s role as one of the peasant protagonists in Leo Tolstoy’s The Fruits of Enlightenment, which premiered at the Alexandrinsky in 1891.

One of the two portraits offered here for sale features a quote from Nikolai Gogol’s The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich, which was adapted for the stage by the playwright and librettist Viktor Alexandrovich Krylov and premiered in 1895, with Sazonov playing the role of Ivan Ivanovich.