The Christie's, Sotheby's, MacDougall's and Bonhams are selling the best Russian paintings as well as arts and crafts in London this week.
The trades in Russian art are beginning today in the British capital against the background of market stabilization at a new, lower price level and the auction houses’ positive expectations from sales. The Russian Week is traditionally held in London twice a year - in May-June and November-December. Biddings for paintings, as well as objects of arts and crafts are organized by the Christie's, Sotheby's, MacDougall's and Bonhams auction houses.
During the auction, which will last until June 7, collectors will be offered hundreds of lots. Among them there will be canvases by the great Russian artists, such as Isaac Levitan, Ilya Repin, Leonid Pasternak, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, and Vasily Polenov.
Isaac Levitan from the Sotheby's
The most expensive lot of the Russian Week is put up at the Sotheby's auction house again. It is The Summer painted by Isaac Levitan (1860-1900). The estimated cost of the canvas is 1-1.5 million pounds sterling ($ 1.3-2 million). Ilya Repin's (1844-1930) portrait of his son Yuri painted in Naples in 1894 is assessed at 750 thousand - 1 million pounds ($ 970 thousand - $ 1.3 million). It was kept in the American collection, just like Levitan’s Summer.
Among other lots there are paintings by Konstantin Yuon (1875-1985). His Kremlin at Night is assessed at 400-600 thousand pounds ($ 515 thousand - 775 thousand), and the canvas Beautiful Day, Izmailovo - at 120-180 thousand pounds ($ 154 thousand - $ 230 thousand). The Sotheby's auction will be held on June 6.
The Christie's Offers Group Portrait of Russian Artists and
One of the top lots of another major auction house, the Christie's, will be a famous portrait of Fedor Chaliapin and artists by Leonid Pasternak (1862-1945). The canvas named At K. A. Korovin’s: Old Songs (Chaliapin and Artists) is assessed from 60 thousand to 80 thousand pounds ($ 78 thousand - $ 104 thousand). The portrait, earlier kept in the collection of the famous Hollywood actress Natalie Wood (1938-1981), the daughter of Russian emigrants, was painted around 1921.
As the auction house emphasizes, being the leading portraitist of his time, Leonid Pasternak, the father of the Nobel Prize winner, writer Boris Pasternak (1890-1960), deservedly gained worldwide fame as a "Russian impressionist". The painting depicts famous opera singer Fedor Chaliapin (1873-1938) and artists Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939), Leonid Pasternak himself, Abram Arkhipov (1862-1930), Pavel Tuchkov (1862-1918) and Prince Sergei Shcherbatov (1875-1962).
MacDougall's and Bonhams
On June 7, the MacDougall's Auction House will offer paintings by Petrov-Vodkin (1878-1939) and Polenov (1844-1927). Portrait of an African Boy painted by Petrov-Vodkin is assessed at 400-600 thousand pounds ($ 515 thousand - $ 770 thousand). Polenov’s monumental canvass Decided to Go to Jerusalem is put up for auction at the same price.
Three paintings by Konstantin Korovin will be offered as well, namely Spring in the Village (1920) and later work The Frozen Pond with an estimate of 150 thousand to 200 thousand pounds ($ 190 thousand - $ 260 thousand) each, as well as Admiral Courbet Embankment in Villefranche-sur-Mer created in France in 1922 and assessed at 300-400 thousand pounds ($ 385 thousand - $ 515 thousand).
On the same day, the auction will be held by the Bonhams. The top lot of this auction house is the monumental canvas Fox Hunting by Dmitry Stelletsky (1875-1947). A real embodiment of the neo-Russian style, the painting is assessed at 100-120 thousand pounds ($ 130 thousand - 155 thousand).
Author: Vera Ivanova