Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

Acquired directly from the artist by Baron Bogdan Yegorovich Meyendorff, Russia (acquired directly from the artist)
Thence by descent

St. Petersburg, Konstantin Makovsky, 1897

Konstantin Makovsky, St. Petersburg, 1897, no. 94

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on panel is in good condition. The single piece of mahogany is un-reinforced and flat. The paint layer is stable and quite dirty. There are a handful of tiny dots of restoration situated beneath the old varnish in the sky and there is a recent paint loss in the dress of the older sister. The foreground seems to be in very good state and there appear to be further retouches. The painting is in very good state and will improve with restoration.
"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."

In the 1870s, during a democratic Itinerant movement in Russian art history, Konstantin Makovsky frequently returned to the theme of peasantry in his paintings. His compositions of daily peasant life are filled with poetic and folkloric spirit, and often they illustrate idealized and sentimental images of children. Certain works such as Children Running from a Thunderstorm of 1872 depict scenes from fairytales by V. Vasnetsov, triggering associations with the Russian folk tale "Gusi-lebedi" (ducks-swans). That painting was very popular and Makovsky reproduced it on several occasions. Furthermore, there exist certain variations of this well received theme, both studies for the original and later reinterpretations. The present lot, Children Crossing a Brook, is a particularly impressive early variation, and it was important enough to the artist that he displayed it at his momentous personal exhibition in St. Petersburg in 1897, where it was included in the exhibition catalogue as number 94.