Attributed to Henri Ippolitovich Semiradsky

Canvas has been relined and it is a bit loose on the stretcher. There is a light surface scratch top right. UV light reveals some retouchings to the prow of the boat and on the plinth below the statue middle left and a few minor spots elsewhere. However, the presence of a partly fluorescent layer of varnish prevents a more conclusive examination. Held in a gold painted moulded plaster frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Henryk Semiradsky is considered amongst Russia's greatest Salon painters. Although he initially trained for a scientific career in his native Ukraine, he moved to Saint Petersburg on graduating from Kharkov Universtiy and enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1864. He was awarded a gold medal as well as a grant to study in Munich under Karl von Piloty. In 1873 he became an Academician for his painting Christ and the Sinner.

Following the Examples of the Gods was first shown in public in 1879 to much acclaim and the artist was subsequently commissioned to produce a number of versions which differ in size and vary in certain details. Some of the best-know versions are in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe selo, the National Gallery of Armenia and Lvov Art Museum (fig.1).