NIKOLAI EGOROVICH SVERCHKOV | A Fiery Steed

Galerie Basmadjian, Paris

Acquired from the above by the present owner in early 1989

Moscow, The State Tretyakov Gallery; Leningrad, The State Hermitage Museum, Vystavka khudozhestvennyh proizvedenii XVI-XX vekov iz sobraniya G.Basmadzhiana, July-September 1988

Paris, Fondation Mona Bismarck, Alfred de Dreux: Le cheval, passion d'un dandy parisien, February-March 1997

Exhibition catalogue, Collection Basmadjian, Paris: Galerie Basmadjian, 1988, illustratred

J.-P. Digard, J.-L. Gouraud, Le cheval, romans et nouvelles, Paris: Omnibus, 1995, reproduced on the cover

The present lot is signed in Latin because it dates to the three year period Sverchov spent in France (1861-1864), renting a studio at 9 rue Brochart-de-Saron. This was an extremely productive and successful period for the artist; in 1863 the Emperor Napoleon III purchased Return from the Bear Hunt from the artist in person.

Sverchkov was particularly pleased with the successful composition of A Fiery Steed and repeated it several times. A later version, dated 1864, is now in the collection of the Museum of the Horse at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in Moscow (fig.1).