S otheby’s is delighted to present this sale of Fabergé, Imperial & Revolutionary Art, featuring over 350 pictures, works by Fabergé and other masters of the Russian Decorative Arts. Ranging from the mid-19th to the early 21st century, the paintings section of the sale includes works by some of Russia's greatest painters. Paintings and works on paper by giants from the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Aivazovsky, Levitan, Repin, Savrasov and Makovsky, feature alongside important paintings by non-official artists from the post-war era. Works by artists who left Russia after the Revolution also feature, among them two exquisite pastels by Alexander Yakovlev from the Croisière jaune expedition across Asia.
The Works of Art section features a diverse range of objects fresh to the market in all categories including Fabergé, enamels, silver, icons, bronzes and a significant collection of porcelain. A particular highlight is the Private Collection of Boris Fuchsmann, which includes impressive cloisonné enamels and figural silver from Russia's most accomplished gold and silversmiths, as well as impressive porcelain, bronzes and fine paintings. This sale also features rare Imperial and revolutionary ceramics, including over fifty porcelain figures from a Private Collection in Maryland, offered without reserve. The craftsmanship of Fabergé is also well represented, notably in the execution of two magnificent silver and guilloché enamel timepieces by workmaster Mikhail Perkhin. Further masterpieces in enamel include a rare casket by the 11th Moscow Artel decorated with an en plein scene of Makovsky’s A Boyar Wedding Feast. The sale concludes with a group of monumental bronzes including Evgeny Lanceray's Bogatyr and Baron Karlovich Klodt's Russian Knight.
The sale is open for bidding and will be concluded in a live auction on the 25th of November (London | 10.30 am GMT).
The highlight of the pictures section is Ivan Aivazovsky's monumental The Survivors, dating from 1878. Last offered for sale in 2004, it remains the largest painting by the artist to come to auction, and one of the largest by the artists to remain in private hands. The sale features another large-scale painting by Aivazovsky, Rest by the Sea on a Moonlit Night, a stunning example of a moonlit coastal scene. These two pictures are complemented by a group of works recently rediscovered in Italy, where they have remained in the same family for three generations (lots 1–6).
Sotheby’s is honoured to present works from the collection of Boris Fuchsmann, continuing a relationship that extended over three decades. An avid and all-encompassing collector, Boris Fuchsmann amassed one of the largest and most complete collections of Russian works of art and paintings known in the modern era. His researched acquisitions included examples in every medium and from every famous Russian maker, creating a collection that was as comprehensive as it was grand. Boris Fuchsmann’s passion for collecting was also evident in the consistent quality of the works he acquired. Examples of which include an impressive group of silver-mounted cut-glass, a pictorial enamel charger by Kurlyukov, a rare triple-aperture Fabergé frame, Imperial Porcelain services including a porcelain centrepiece from the Cabinet service of Catherine II and Isaak Ilich Levitan's magnificent Boats on the Volga.
For paintings and works of art from this collection, see lots: 27-34, 119-120, 168, 172, 176-192, 194-195, 197-218, 220-228, 231-238, 300-306, 311, 316, 346, 348-349, 352-357, 361-363.
The sale includes a number of exciting rediscoveries, among them Konstantin Makovsky's Breton Girl from an American collection, which has remained in the same family since its acquisition in France in the 1930s. Boris Kustodiev's Procession by St Basil's Cathedral, Moscow, was until now only known from the listings of the artist's work found in Soviet-era publications. Sergei Vinogradov's Summer Contemplation, painted in the Latvian countryside in the 1920s, was last sold in 1992, and has remained in the same collection ever since.
The sale's selection of Fabergé exemplifies the firm's expertise in all materials, from finely executed enamelled objects of vertu to beautifully carved harstones and expertly chased silverware.
Forming part of an encyclopaedic collection of Russian porcelain, we are delighted to present a selection of figures from a private collection in Marland that represents Russia's most well-known private porcelain factories. Collected over decades, with deep scholarship and interest in a diversity of Russian figures, the group ranges from a rare porcelain group of Lovers Discovered by the Imperial Porcelain Factory, after the original model by J. J. Kaendler to rare compositions by Speiss, early porcelain figures from the Gardner Porcelain Factory, and just under twenty biscuit porcelain figures from the pre-eminent 'Peoples of Russia' series.
Sourced from private collections across Europe and North America, we are delighted to offer over 260 exciting works in enamel, porcelain, bronze and precious metals.
The sale includes a large selection of works by key representatives of the various non-official art movements that existed in the Soviet Union in the post-war era. Lots 83 - 93 come from the same private collection and inlude an early work by Erik Bulatov, as well as three paintings by Semion Faibisovich. Lots 93 - 102 have been in the same American collection since the 1990s, and feature works by Oleg Tselkov and Leonid Purygin . Sots Art is represented by Komar and Melamid, Alexander Kosolapov and Leonid Sokov.
Gifted from Empress Catherine the Great to the Portuguese Minister Aires de Sá e Melo on the advent of diplomatic relations between Russia and Portugal, and executed by preimenent court jeweller Jean Pierre Ador a year before his death, this lot is certainly a rarety to appear on the market. We are delighted to offer it in the upcomming sale: Treasures | 11 December | Paris.
