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 35

There are some minor chips to the nose, eyebrows, chin, wreath and along the base. There is an area of loss to the glaze on the back, about 4cm from the base.
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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."

Mikhail Vrubel's Girl with a Wreath is a superb example of the exceptional ceramics that the artist produced in the 1890s at the Abramtsevo ceramic workshop, based at Savva Mamontov's country estate until 1896, when it moved to Moscow. The features of the model bear strong resemblance to Vrubel's muse, the opera singer Nadeshda Zabela whom he would marry in 1896. He had first met her in late December 1895 in St Petersburg during the rehearsals for Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel in which she played the role of Gretel, and Vrubel designed the sets and costumes. The model could therefore have been conceived in 1896 at the earliest. A similar version at the museum in Abramtsevo is thought to be one of the first examples.

Vrubel developed a new firing technique together with the chemist Petr Vaulin in 1899 which altered the appearance of his later versions of this model (see for example the version at The State Tretyakov Gallery). This significant change in technique allows us to date the present version to circa 1898. The colours of the veneer are beautifully complex and change according to the lighting. The use of semi-matte silver-grey glazes made from silver makes the sculpture particularly refined and is testimony to the artist's mastery of the old firing technique.

We are grateful to Eleonora Paston from the State Tretyakov Gallery and Olga Novikova from the Ceramic Museum Kuskovo for providing additional cataloguing information.