In 1915 Sergei Vinogradov invited Irina Voitsekhovskaya, his student at the Stroganov school, to spend the summer with him at Alupka in Crimea. The colour and light of the South had such a positive effect on his painting, and the climate on his health, that he would return the two following summers. The works from the series In the South, painted between 1915 and 1917, before the outbreak of Revolution and his marriage to Irina in 1918, are among the finest of his career. With the broad expressive brushstrokes and jewel-like palette centred on ultramarine, white, fresh greens and bright reds (see fig.1), Woman Seated on Steps is typical of the series in terms of technique, however, in terms of composition it is perhaps the most successful.

Much like Korovin, at whose Gurzuf dacha Salambo Vinogradov was a frequent guest, in his Crimean works he often depicts his sitters on a balcony or veranda or by an open window revelling in the contrast between the brilliant light of the Southern sun and the dappled, inviting shade which he so skilfully picks out in tints of violet. Irina is the central focus of the composition in her luminous white dress and same distinctive white shoes she wears in almost every painting she sits for in the late 1910s and early 1920s, but instead of turning away, half-engaged in another activity as she is most often depicted, here she stares directly out of the canvas. By placing her on the dynamic line of the diagonal steps leading up to the veranda, the artist raises her above us, placing both himself and the viewer at her feet.

Vinogradov exhibited twelve of his Crimean views from the series at the 15th Exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists in Moscow in December 1917, the present lot likely among them. After the artist’s death shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Irina emigrated from Riga to Canada taking many paintings with her, a number of which ended up in private collections in Canada and the United States. Given that this work was sold at a Parke-Bernet sale in New York in 1968 it is quite possible that this portrait was among them.

C. Michael Paul (1901-1980) was born Pavel Mikhailovich Iogolevitch in Imperial Russia where, after a brief career as a violinist, he joined the Russian army. He changed his name to Capton Michael Paul when he emigrated to the United States after World War I. After accumulating a large fortune in the petroleum business, he founded the C. Michael Paul Foundation and in 1965, he endowed the C. Michael Paul Hall at the Julliard School.