LONDON.- This summer, Sotheby’s sale of Russian Pictures on 2nd June 2015 will feature over 180 paintings, works on paper and photographs spanning three centuries of artistic production.

At the very heart of the sale are two impressive single-owner collections. The first collection, a group of works by the Russian Surrealist Pavel Tchelitchew, includes two superb gouaches from his ‘Bullfight’ series inspired by a trip to Spain in 1934. The second collection, 18 lots from the collection of Boris Bakhmeteff (Russian ambassador to the United States from 1917 to 1922), includes paintings by Petr Konchalovsky and Zinaida Serebriakova which will be offered for sale for the first time since they were acquired in 1924 at an exhibition for Russian artists at the Grand Central Palace in New York.

The 19th-century section of the sale features two major rediscoveries: Alexei Savrasov’s masterpiece The Volga near Yurevets as well as a rare view of Cairo by Ivan Aivazovsky dating from 1870. They are joined by an exquisite portrait of Ardalion Petrovich Novosiltsev by Vladimir Borovikovsky.

Altogether the sale is expected to realise between £9 – 12.7 million.

Frances Asquith, Head of Russian Paintings, “In the current market, buyers respond enthusiastically to three things: rarity, quality, and realistic estimates. This summer’s sale sees an array of artists who have performed consistently well at auction in recent years – the likes of Pavel Tchelitchew, Vladimir Borovikovsky, Petr Konchalovsky and Valentin Serov. These are all artists who represent the most lively and vibrant areas of the market and whose prices are on the rise. The Russian market continues to present alluring opportunities for collectors.”

AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS
NINE WORKS BY PAVEL TCHELITCHEW - THE RUSSIAN SURREALIST
Pavel Tchelitchew (1898 – 1957) had travelled to Spain with writer Charles Henri Ford and photographer Cecil Beaton in the summer of 1934, visiting the El Greco museum in Toledo, attending bullfights in Seville and travelling extensively around Malaga, Picasso’s native province. The journey was to have a transformative effect on the artist’s work: Tchelitchew’s impressions manifested themselves in an unprecedented explosion of colour and exaggerated foreshortening of figures.

Spain and Bullfight were executed on the artist’s return from Spain and are from a three-part series of works that constitute the artist’s most celebrated output from the period.* The imagery and playful use of perspective reveal an undeniable affinity with fellow Surrealist painter and friend Salvador Dalí.

In total the group comprises nine works by the artist. The sale comes in the wake of the exceptional £362,500 paid for another work by the artist, Woman at the Window (est. £200,000-300,000), at Sotheby’s London in November 2014.

*The third gouache from the Bullfight series, Toreador (1934), sold at Sotheby’s New York on 6 May 2015 for $430,000 (est. $200,000-300,000).

THREE 19th CENTURY MASTERWORKS
• Alexei Savrasov, The Volga near Yurevets (1870), oil on canvas, 126.5 by 207cm, est. £1,400,0001,800,000
A lost masterpiece. Last exhibited in 1871, the work was known only from a black and white photograph until its re-discovery in France last year. Widely considered one of Savrasov’s finest paintings and documented extensively in the literature on the artist, it is his most important work ever to appear at auction.

• Ivan Aivazovsky, Evening in Cairo (1870), oil on canvas, 110 by 134cm, est. £1,500,000-2,000,000
Last exhibited almost seventy years ago at the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow in 1950, this spectacular view is one of the earliest known Egyptian views by the artist, painted in 1870 - the year after Aivazovsky attended the opening of the Suez canal. Although the artist travelled to the Mediterranean and Constantinople frequently throughout his life, this was his only visit to Cairo and his Egyptian views are correspondingly rare. In terms of its grandeur and topographical detail, Evening in Cairo is unparalleled.

Looking west towards the pyramids of Giza from an elevated vantage point above the eastern edge of the city, the artist provides a panoramic view of some of that city’s most recognizable landmarks: the dome and minaret of Sultan Hassan, the iconic silhouette of the Mamluk madrasa and mausoleum or Khayrbak and the early Bahri Palace of Alin Aq.

• Vladimir Borovikovsky, Portrait of Ardalion Petrovich Novosiltsev (1807), oil on canvas, 73 by 60.3cm, est. £800,000-1,200,000
During her travels through southern Russia in 1787, it is said that Catherine the Great stayed in a house in which hung two paintings by the young Borovikovsky. Such was their impressive quality that the Empress invited the artist to relocate from his native Mirgorod to St Petersburg. From 1892 onwards he trained under Johann Baptist Lampi the Elder, who had also recently moved to the capital at Catherine’s invitation; by the mid-1890s Borovikovsky had established himself as one of the leading portrait artists among St Petersburg’s fashionable elite.

The present portrait shows Ardalion Petrovich Novosiltsev, who came from a family of Orlov landowners. He is depicted here in full court uniform, as befitting his rank of Gentleman of the Bedchamber. Prior to its appearance at Sotheby’s in 1995 the portrait was unknown to scholars. A new auction record was set for the artist last year when Portrait of Countess Liubov Il'inichna Kusheleva (1803) sold in London for £3 million.

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF BORIS BAKHMETEFF
Boris Bakhmeteff (1880-1951) arrived in the United States in June 1917 as Russian Ambassador representing the Provisional Government, a position he retained until he resigned in 1922, shortly before the establishment of the Soviet Union. He stayed in the United States for the rest of his life and became a leading figure in the Russian émigré community. While over 100 objects from his collection including icons, 19th- and early 20th-century paintings, drawings and prints were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1972, Sotheby’s is now offering a group of 18 lots for auction, all of which had special value to Bakhmeteff’s family and they chose to retain.

Bakhmeteff made important additions to his art collection from major exhibitions of works by Russian artists at the Grand Central Galleries in New York in 1924 and 1929. There he acquired several paintings which will now be offered for sale again for the very first time including works by Petr Konchalovsky (lot 50 Moon, 1923, est. £120,000-180,000), Zinaida Serebriakova (lot 51 Study of a Sleeping Girl, 1923, est. £400,000-600,000) and Fedor Zakharov (lot 66 Still Life with Sweet Peas, 1923, £10,000-15,000).

• Boris Grigoriev, Landscape in Haute-Savoie (1927), oil on canvas, 64 by 53cm, est. £ 40,000-60,000 – This superbly expressive French landscape was painted soon after the artist purchased his beloved small estate in Provence near Cagnes-sur-Mer.

• Alexander Yakovlev, Salek Ibn Mohamed (1931), sanguine and pastel on paper, 74.5 by 54.5cm, est. £30,000-50,000 - Executed during the artist’s second expedition with the famous French Citroën group, for which he had been tasked with recording the peoples, cultures and everyday life and landscapes of the countries they passed through.

• Natalia Goncharova, Fleurs d’automne, oil on canvas, 72 by 59.5cm, est. £100,000-150,000 - A reminder of the artist’s stylistic dexterity and compositional flair, as well as her continued ability to give new depth and meaning to the figurative trends in 20th century Russian modernism. The subject of the autumn bouquet was one to which the artist returned time and again.