NIKOLAI FECHIN | Portrait of Eya

Fechin started work on this portrait of his daughter Eya while still in Russia but only completed and signed it after his arrival in America in 1923, which explains the Russian export stamp on the reverse and the Latin signature. Between 1920 and 1922 Fechin was commissioned to create a series of miniatures to decorate wooden boxes, also creating a number for himself. In an inventory of artworks the artist was permitted to export with him from Russia (now preserved in a private archive in San Cristobal) five miniatures are recorded: one is titled Daughter, the other Portrait of Iika. The present lot is almost certainly one of the two.

We are grateful to Galina Tuluzakova for providing additional cataloguing information.