Henri Ippolitovich Semiradsky

Rempex Warsaw, 24 September 2003, lot 258

T.Karpova, Genrikh Semiradsky, St Petersburg: Zolotoi vek, 2008, mentioned p.74

Structural Condition The canvas is lined and is securely attached to what would certainly appear to be the original keyed wooden stretcher. This is ensuring an even and stable structural support. Paint surface The paint surface has a relatively even varnish layer. There is a small paint loss within the architecture towards the centre of the upper horizontal framing edge, several small losses within the figure's brown clothing in the lower centre of the composition, and two further losses towards the centre of the left and right vertical framing edges. There are also some very minor losses within the flagpoles in the right of the composition. There is an area of abraded varnish above the flames in the lower right quadrant of the composition. Inspection under ultra-violet show fairly extensive retouchings throughout the composition, the most significant of which are: 1) an area of retouching below the figure tending to the fire in the lower right of the composition and some further associated retouchings, 2) two areas of of concentrated spots and lines towards the centre of the left vertical framing edge and towards the centre of the upper horizontal framing edge, 3) scattered retouchings throughout the sky, and 4) strengthening to the figure's faces and clothing in the foreground. Other scattered spots and lines of inpainting are also visible. Summary The painting therefore appears to be in fairly good condition and would benefit from cleaning, restoration and revarnishing including the infilling and retouching of any areas of paint loss.
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When it was first shown in Rome, The Torches of Nero (1873-1876, The National Museum, Krakow) caused a stir not seen since Karl Briullov exhibited The Last Days of Pompeii (1830-1833). The rapturous reviews propelled Semiradsky to a new level of fame of which, he wrote 'I had dared not even dream'. The painting was exhibited before it had even been finished and Semiradsky's studio became a place of pilgrimage for admirers, including Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (see T.Karpova, Genrikh Semiradsky, 2008, p.79). Over 5,000 people came to see the painting on the final day of the exhibition at the Italian Academy of Arts and with the proceeds Semiradsky could afford to build himself a palazzo on Rome's via Nazionale. The acclaim and awards only gathered momentum when the painting travelled on to Munich, Vienna and Paris, where it was awarded the great gold medal at the 1878 World Exhibition. Academies throughout Western Europe clamoured for Semiradsky to join their ranks and the Uffizi Gallery commissioned a self-portrait for their prestigious Vasari corridor.

It has been argued however, that the present study is in many ways a stronger painting. 'The composition is more elongated than the finished version, a format which allows Semiradsky to avoid the inadequacies of the final composition such as the overcrowding of the left-hand side and the awkward proximity of the 'living torches' to Nero and the spectators. In this study, the string of six torches against the dusk sky produces a much stronger dramatic impression' (T.Karpova, Genrikh Semiradsky, St Peterburg: Zolotoi Vek, p.74).

Semiradsky produced a number of studies for The Torches of Nero, three of which are in the Krakow National Museum. The present lot is the closest to the finished version. The studies were almost certainly known to other Russian artists. As Karpova points out, Ilya Repin's later work Golgotha (1896, fig.1) for example, borrows both the palette and perspective of the present work (idem, p.218).  Semiradsky prized his studies as highly as his contemporaries did, as Professor Venig recalled: 'His studies always won first prize. When he was still a student he used to tell me that while painting studies he was in his element. Working out a composition he felt like a fish in water' (K.Venig quoted in Peterburgsky listok, 17 August 1902).  

The expressive oil and pencil sketches for The Torches of Nero are typical examples: stripped of an over-abundance of detail, they tend to show his aesthetic imagination and brilliant grasp of perspective much better than his final canvases, which can feel over-saturated with minutae unsuited to their scale that ultimately detract from the pathos of the scene.

Semiradsky was undoubtedly one of Russia's greatest colourists as the delicate tonal harmonies of the present lot reveal. Built on 'amethyst-lily tones, emerald-green and aquamarine combined with vermillion, purple and gold, they give an impression of a precious overflow of colour riches, 'shimmering' with precious stones to create a sense of refined luxury' (idem, p.76).

Mikhail Nesterov recalls the great lengths that Semiradsky went to in order to lend verisimilitude to the effects of the dusk light in the present work. 'Nobody understands how hard the artist worked on Torches in Rome or the diligence with which he collected material anywhere and everywhere. On his evening walks on the Pincio hill... Semiradsky would suddenly stop, open his small travelling casket and cast a scrap of coloured silk over a fragment old marble or carefully place a metal trinket, which he then sketched to record the fall of evening light. He was a keen observer of the effects of colour and worked hard.... He did not rely purely on talent but worked unflaggingly while he was in Rome' (M.Nesterov, Davnie dni, Moscow, 1959, p.110).

The figure of Nero had clearly caught the public's imagination in the 1860s and 1870s. As he was working on The Torches of Nero, Semiradsky is known to have travelled to Dresden specially to meet the writer Ignaty Krashevsky, whose book Rome under Nero was published in Krakow in 1866. He would also have been familiar with Karl Piloty's Nero amongst the Ruins of Rome (1860), Wilhelm von Kaulbach's fresco series on the destruction of Jerusalem (1860), and the work of his close contemporary Joseph Sylvestre, Nero testing Poison on a Slave, which won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1876. To offer such an important example of Semiradsky's contribution to this trend presents a rare and exciting opportunity.