Alexander Nikolaevich Benois

Bassin de Neptune, Versailles

VAT reduced rateArtist's Resale Right

Auction Closed

December 1, 03:47 PM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from a Private Collection, United States

Alexander Nikolaevich Benois

1870 - 1960

Bassin de Neptune, Versailles

signed in Latin l.r and dated 23 IV 1926 l.l.; further signed with initials and numbered 34 on the reverse

watercolour over pencil on paper

Sheet: 28 by 41.5cm, 11 by 16¼in.

Framed: 44 by 57cm, 17¼ by 22½in.

Acquired by the grandparents of the present owner in Paris in the late 1920s

In 1926, the year the present work dates from, Benois moved to Paris having held the position of curator of the Old Masters gallery at the Hermitage since 1918. Benois spent the rest of his life in France, where he continued to work and design for the theatre.

‘Versailles for Alexander Benois is the embodiment of the harmonious unity of man, nature and art. In the "harmony of external forms of life" the artist sees not a superficial stratification, but an expression of the "culture of human dignity", that is, an ethical principle’ (A.Gusarova, Mir Iskusstva, Leningrad: Khudozhnik RSFSR, 1972).