Yuri Ivanovich Pimenov

Matthew Cullerne Bown, London (acquired directly from the artist's daughter in the early 1990s)
Raymond and Susan Johnson, Minneapolis, 1993
The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis, 2002

Minneapolis, The Museum of Russian Art, Russkiy Salon: Select Masterpieces & Newly Revealed Works, February-August 2009

This painting on canvas has been mounted onto a solid support of aluminum with a wooden center. The adhesive used in this case is not immediately apparent. It seems like a synthetic, non-wax adhesive. The paint layer is cleaned, varnished and retouched. The restoration is quite accurate in most cases. The retouches are interspersed in small areas here and there throughout the picture, indicating perhaps that the canvas, at somepoint before it was mounted, was stretched on a stretcher which allowed some small paint losses to occur. There do not appear to be any structural damages and the restorations are competently carried out throughout the piece. The painting should be hung as is. 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 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."

Yuri Pimenov's cityscapes rank among the most highly sought-after images of the Soviet era. His representations of everyday scenes unfolding against Moscow's evolving skyline offer a unique commentary on the extraordinary socio-economic changes that were taking place in the country. Interestingly, women are the subjects of many of his most famous paintings, for example New Moscow (fig 1). In the offered lot, man is absent from the scene, but the female workers are represented in monumental scale above the Moscow streets, highlighting the important role they play in a productive society. Hoisting the Soviet flag in celebration of the First of May, also known as May Day or International Workers' Day, these women scale to heroic heights, recalling the vertical composition of Serafima Ryangina's Higher and Higher of 1934 (fig 2).