Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel

Acquired in Paris by a Russian émigré collector in the interwar years
Sotheby's London, Icons, Russian Pictures and Works of Art, 24 November 1992, lot 33

There are some minor firing defaults to the left side of the head and in a few places elsewhere. There is a small weak area to the left side of the head with potential for flaking. There are two chips to the glaze, one approximately 0.5cm in diameter to the head on the left side. There are further chips to the glaze along the edges and to the face: to the left eye, to the right side of the nose, the chin and the scarf. There are further minor chips to the glaze along the base. There are several extended chips to the rim of the headpiece: the smallest 1cm in length; the largest 4cm in length.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Vrubel began his first Egyptian Girl in the summer of 1891, making it one of his earliest ceramic conceptions. The highly finished features of the present lot allow us to date it to the mid-1890s. A traditional oxidation firing technique has been used, typical of Vrubel's early ceramics from this period. The extraordinary reflective sheen results from his experiments with glazes over a golden base. His use of semi-gloss silver-grey glazes over a silver base that can be seen in the version of Egyptian Girl in the Historical Museum. The extraordinary golden-red patina of the present lot is a superb example of Vrubel developing these glaze effects even further, experiments which eventually led Vrubel to the discovery of the reductive firing techniques which lend the unique gleaming effect to his fireplace tiles, vases and sculptures.

The features bear strong resemblance to Vrubel's illustrations of Tamara in Lermontov's Demon, for example A powerful gaze directed towards her eyes or Tamara in her grave. The model for these was Savva Mamontov's daughter, Vera (1875-1907), and it has been suggested that the present work is in fact a bust portrait of her (see P.Suzdalev, Vrubel, 1991, p.240). Vera was painted by a number of Abramtsevo artists including Victor Vasnetsov and Valentin Serov, whose portrait of her in Girl with Peaches (1887) is among his most famous works.

Vrubel's early biographer Stepan Yaremich called the present sculpture Egyptian Girl, and the nearly monochrome brown glazes of some versions do suggest African skin tones. In other versions however, Vrubel has left the face unpainted, with the exception of the eyes and lips, and the bare clay is juxtaposed with the multi-coloured glazes elsewhere. 

We are grateful to Eleonora Paston of The State Tretyakov Gallery and Vilyams Nevsky of the Abramtsevo Museum for providing additional cataloguing information.