Konstantin Alexeevich Korovin

Christie's London, Important Russian Pictures Including the Somov Collection, 28 November 2007, lot 411

L.Liubimov, 'Pushkin I Muza', Vozrozhdenie, Paris, 19 April 1930, illustrated
R.Vlasova, Konstantin Korovin, Leningrad, 1969, pp.184-185

The canvas is slightly undulated in the top right quadrant. There are 2 pinholes to the top right corners and the surface appears to be dirty. There are traces of silver pigment to the top inner frame edge, possibly from the previous frame. There are three prominent lines of vertical craquelure to the bottom part of the canvas with associated paint loss and small holes. There are rubbings to the bottom right edge and media staining throughout. Unexamined under UV light. Held in a simple gold painted frame with mouldings. Unexamined out of frame.
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The offered lot was the centrepiece of a 1930 interview with Korovin in his studio: 'With his hands in his pockets, Korovin looked at his painting. "How Romantic! It's a good piece! ... The lordly manor with columns and the wooden huts in the background – that's Russia." The inscription in the lower right reads: 'Where to the feast of the imagination, I would summon the muse', from Pushkin's poem The Conversation of a Bookseller and Poet (1824), in which the poet poignantly declares: 'A carefree poet I wrote, From inspiration, not for pay'. The reference provides a fitting context for this extraordinary portrait which is imbued with Korovin's own nostalgia for his homeland and a bygone era at a time when he too had material concerns.

'I painted Pushkin the way that my grandmother, Ekaterina Ivanovna Volova, remembered him...'   Korovin explained in the interview. 'In the 30s she saw him at the Moscow Nobility Assembly. He was dressed like a London dandy with a cape and cane. My grandmother said he was short, with chestnut hair and grey, alert eyes... He was constantly looking at his wife with whom he danced. As soon as he entered the room everyone whispered 'Pushkin' (the artist quoted in L.Liubimov, 'Pushkin i Muza', Vozrozhdenie, Paris, 19 April 1930).  

The sculptural qualities of the two figures, the silvery tones and the majestic size are rare in Korovin's work, making this a significant addition to a fuller understanding of the artist's mature oeuvre.According to the Vozrozhdenie article and the Vlasova monograph, the present lot was intended for an exhibition of Russian Art in Prague.

Korovin had become an important cultural figure among the émigré Paris community. His name may not have been spoken in hushed tones, but Alexander Benois and Sergei Makovsky were among the several leading figures who published articles on his life and work the following year, and Korovin himself wrote dozens of articles for the newspaper Vozrozhdenie from 1929 onwards alongside his teaching at the Russian art academy in Montparnasse.