N08788

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Lot 3
  • 3

Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin

Estimate
300,000 - 400,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin
  • Evening in Marseilles
  • signed Const. Korovine, inscribed Marseilles and dated 1897 (lower left)
  • oil on canvas
  • 33 1/2 by 25 1/4 in., 85 by 64 cm

Literature

Perezvoni, Riga, 1925, no. 4, illustrated

Condition

This canvas has been lined. The canvas needs to be tightened slightly, but it is well supported by the lining. The paint layer has been cleaned and varnished, and as far as we can tell there are no retouches visible either under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye. This painting is in very good condition and 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."

Catalogue Note

Korovin's earliest evening scenes reveal "a sense of excitement in the magical glitter of night life in the big city, accompanied by a barely perceptible feeling of the human loneliness in him" (V. Kruglov, Korovin: Velikie mastera proshlogo, Moscow, 1997, p. 47). He was drawn to the specific night-time energy on the streets of Marseilles, writing: "In the evening the port became more animated. Cafés filled with people. Sounds could be heard of music, singing sailors, shouting vendors, and reigning over everything was the incessant howling of steamship whistles." In reference to a painting titled Marseilles Port in the Evening, N.I. Komarovskaya writes that Korovin authored his Marseilles output "with immense inspiration from and appreciation for the vivid colors of this typical southern port" (O Konstantine Korovine, 1961, p. 92).

Though exceptionally abstracted for this early period in his career, the offered lot is dated 1897. This year corresponds with the birth of Korovin's son Alexei and the death of his renowned mentor Alexei Savrasov, as well as the artist's participation in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. The work is further signed Const. Korovine in Latin, in line with other French scenes executed in the mid-1890s and later.