Russian Pictures
Russian Pictures
Russian Pictures
Please note that the results listed on this page are inclusive of any Sotheby's Premiums and exclusive of any applicable taxes and costs, unless otherwise noted.
Please note that the results listed on this page are inclusive of any Sotheby's Premiums and exclusive of any applicable taxes and costs, unless otherwise noted.
Russian Pictures
11 November - 1 December 2020 • London
The December 2020 Russian Pictures sale offers a diverse selection of Russian art from the 18th century to the present, with estimates ranging from £500 to £1.5m. Among the earliest paintings is a late 18th century portrait of Count Ilya Andreevich Bezborodko by Dmitry Levitsky, one of Russia’s greatest portrait painters. Exhibited at least three times in Russia before the Revolution and then again in Belgium in 1928, the work is further distinguished by its provenance which goes back to the sitter’s family. Highlights from the late 19th century include two large canvases by Ivan Aivazovsky, as well as Henryk Siemiradzki’s Parnassus from 1900, a smaller-scale version of the monumental curtain the artist painted for the Lviv Opera House. Having remained in the same family for over a century and never before shown in public, it is a major rediscovery for scholars and collectors alike.
The sale also includes important works from the early 20th century with many of the varied movements in Russian art of this time represented. These include Sleeping Lady in a Room in 18th Century Dress, a Russian-period oil by the leading member of Mir iskusstva, Konstantin Somov; two paintings by the great Russian Impressionist Konstantin Korovin, among them a portrait of the ballerina Vera Trefilova; as well as a particularly strong section of avant-garde works by artists such as Natalia Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov, Ivan Puni, Alexander Bogomazov and Konstantin Rozhdestvensky.
Several single-owner groups are offered in the sale, among them the collection of theatre designs put together by the actor Michael York and his wife Patricia McCallum, an accomplished photographer who has shown her work in many museums around the world, including in Russia. Featuring designs for the Ballets Russes by Bakst, Larionov and Goncharova as well as works by Exter and Tchelitchew, this is one of the most significant group of Russian theatre designs to come to market in recent years. The auction further includes a group of seven works from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, sold to the benefit future acquisitions, the highlight of which is a pre-revolutionary canvas by Sergei Vinogradov painted in Crimea.
Please note that the Russian Pictures sale on 1 December will take place as a Live Studio sale, to be conducted by an auctioneer behind closed doors. The sale will offer Advance bidding as well as real-time Telephone and Online bidding only.
Illustrated:
Henryk Siemiradzki
Parnassus, 1900
Estimate: £400,000-600,000
For assistance with bidding and registration, please contact:
+44 207 293 5000
For sale enquiries please contact:
Reto Barmettler
Director
Head of Department, London
Russian Pictures
+44 20 7293 5673
Charlotte Larkin
Deputy Director
Specialist
Russian Pictures
+44 207 293 5565
Ieva Mikutaviciute
Cataloguer
Russian Paintings
IEVA.MIKUTAVICIUTE@SOTHEBYS.COM
Wladimir Witkowsky
Specialist
Russian Art
+1 2126067150
WLADIMIR.WITKOWSKY@SOTHEBYS.COM
Irina Stepanova
Senior Director
Managing Director
Sotheby’s Russia
+7 495 772 7751
Mark Poltimore
Chairman
Sotheby’s Russia and CIS
+44 20 7293 5200
Alina Davey
Senior Director
International Business Development
+44 20 7293 5629
Lilija Sitnika
Director
Senior Client Liaison
+44 20 7293 5934
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Sale number
L20115