Wilhelm Alexandrovich Golike, 1802-1848

Golicke was born into a middle class family, originally from Estlandia (present day Estonia).  He was taken on as a pupil in the St. Petersburg studio of the English artist George Dawe, a court painter to the Duke of Kent who in 1819 travelled to Russia at the official invitation of Alexander I to execute more than 300 portraits for the famous Military Gallery in Winter Palace, now part of the State Hermitage.

After Dawe’s death in 1829, Golicke entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg as a voluntary student and in 1832 he was named “Independent Artist” [svobodni khudozhnik], a form of official recognition of status.  Although he started out as an apprentice, from 1826 he had been arranging his own compositions and by the 1830s he exhibited at the illustrious Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.  Known primarily as a portraitist he also painted genres, still-lives, landscapes, historical and allegorical compositions.

Golicke was George Dawe’s favourite pupil and the mentor was generous in passing on his knowledge and experience, to which letters written by Golike testify.  He taught his young apprentice to paint from nature.  In his will, Dawe granted him a life pension which shows the affectionate nature of their relationship; he also presented Golicke with his Self-Portrait.

In the 1830s Golicke painted a number of posthumous portraits of Dawe and the English engraver Thomas Wright (1792-1849), who was married to Dawe's sister.  In 1832, Golicke incorporated a copy of the self-portrait Dawe had given him, in his picture At the Studio of the Artist Golicke (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow).  He positions Dawe at the top of the painting as if he is blessing his talented pupil.  Perhaps as a sign of gratitude, Golicke also included George Dawe in his full-length Self-Portrait with Family, c.1834, (State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg).  The offered lot is a larger, version of this undated work.

It is possible Golicke created a few different versions of this portrait with the intention of presenting one to Thomas Wright or some of Dawe’s English relatives when he visited London in 1837 to attend to formalities relating to Dawe’s will.  Golicke frequently repainted original compositions, sometimes adding images of his children or changing certain details.  Another known group or family portrait depicts himself with his wife and children, painted in 1836 and in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

We are very grateful to Dr Galina Andreeva for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.