11/11/13

Mikhail Klodt (1832-1902) | A riverside farm | Russian Pictures Auction</li>

MIKHAIL KLODT (1832-1902)

A RIV ERSIDE FARM

Lot 27 / Sale 7906

Price Realized 7 6 9 ,2 50 ($1 ,1 1 6 ,9 51 )
Sales totals are hammer price plus buyers premium and do not reflect costs, financing fees or application of buyers or sellers credits.

Estim ate 7 00,000 - 9 00,000 ($1 ,1 00,000 - $1 ,4 00,000)

Sale Informat ion Sale 7 9 06 Russian Art 8 June 2 01 0 London, King Street Lot Descript ion Mikhail Klodt (1 83 2 -1 9 02 ) A riv erside farm signed 'Klodt' (lower left); further signed 'M. Klodt' (lower right); with inscription in Russian and date 'v iew/from the neighbourhood/of Zegev ald/53 v ersts from the city of Riga/1 858/painted en plein air /Baron M. Klodt' (on the rev erse) oil on canv as 4 1 x 6 0 in. (1 06 x 1 53 .7 cm .) Special Not ice VAT rate of 5% is pay able on ham m er price and at 1 7 .5% on the buy er's prem ium . Pre-Lot Text PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR Provenance Anony m ous sale, Sotheby 's, London, 2 0 February 1 9 85, lot 2 2 5 as A riverside farmstead. Lit erat ure F. I. Bulgakov , Nashi khudozhniki na akademicheskikh vystavkakh poslednovo 25-letiia, St Petersburg, 1 9 80, p. 1 89 . Probably , State Tretyakov Gallery: Catalogue of the Collection: Painting of the Second Half of the 19th Century, Moscow, 2 001 , v ol. 4 , book 1 , p. 2 6 6 . Probably , A. Shestim irov , Zabytye I mena Russkaia Zhivopis' XI X Veka, Moscow, 2 001 , illustrated p. 1 2 9 , probably m is-titled 'Vid na ostrove Valaam ' ( View of Valaam I sland). Lot Not es
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11/11/13

Mikhail Klodt (1832-1902) | A riverside farm | Russian Pictures Auction</li>

Painted by Baron Mikhail Klodt in 1 858, a Riverside Farm , is a rare m asterpiece from one of Russia's greatest landscape artists. As is ev ident in works such as Oak-wood (fig. 1 , 1 86 3 , State Trety akov Gallery , Moscow) and On the Volga, (1 880, State Russian Museum , St Petersburg), Klodt was fundam entally m otiv ated to accurately capture the eternal beauty of the Russian land. Indeed, after three y ears of trav elling in Europe he chose to cut his sojourn short and applied for perm ission to return to his hom eland. A founding m em ber of the Peredvizhniki ('Wanderers') group, Klodt's natural alliance with this m ov em ent deriv ed less from the desire to underline the ills of society through their faithful depiction but rather to portray Russia as she was: consider the hy per-realistic rendering of the cows and trees in the present lot. The leading art critic of the tim e, Vladim ir Stasov (1 82 4 -1 9 06 ), wrote that the painter '...was attem pting sim ply to seize Russian nature in all its sim plicity and discretion, without any pretension or pom posity ...' (quoted in A. Shestinikov , Zabytye I mena Russkaia Zhivopis' XI X Veka, Moscow, p. 1 2 5). Fittingly for a m em ber of one of Russia's oldest artistic dy nasties, Klodt was passionately traditional in his m indset and abhorred the increasing trend he observ ed am ongst his country m en for v isual special effects and incom pletion. He m ade strenuous attem pts to reform the m anner in which landscape painting was taught at the Academ y , presiding ov er a dedicated class he established with Alexei Bogoliubov in 1 87 1 . His refusal to resign his post as professor at the Academ y , the natural enem y of the Peredvizhniki and his im passioned criticism of Arkhip Kuindzhi led to his resignation from the group in 1 880. Reproduced and discussed in Bulgakov 's 1 89 0 v olum e 'Nashi khudozhniki' , the author appears to hav e m is-titled the work, incorrectly labelling the illustration A view of Valaam I sland, Klodt's earlier 1 857 work for which he receiv ed a silv er m edal. Alexander Shestinikov com pounds this error in his 2 001 v olum e in which the work is illustrated but not discussed. The correct title of the painting is likely View of Zegevald, a region in Liv onia, now part of m odern Latv ia: in addition to the painting's inscription on the rev erse, possibly by the artist which reads 'v iew from the neighbourhood of Zegev ald, 53 v ersts from the city of Riga, 1 858, painted en plein air Baron M. Klodt', Klodt, who was m em orably criticised by Stasov for being too slav ishly faithful to nature, has clearly painted deciduous trees unknown on the Karelian island of Valaam and appears to hav e captured the ruins of the 1 3 th-century Sigulda castle in the upper left corner of the picture. The phy sical characteristics of the land are notably sim ilar to those depicted in Klodt's 1 86 2 v iew of the Aa-riv er v alley in Liv onia (State Russian Museum , St Petersburg). It is likely that Klodt, confident that this singular work was of sufficient calibre to showcase his talent, selected the painting for subm ission as his graduation piece from the St Petersburg Academ y of Arts for which he was awarded a gold m edal of the first class and a significant trav el bursary allowing him to spend the next three y ears study ing and working in France, Germ any and Switzerland. Depart ment Informat ion Russian Pictures Relat ed Feat ures The Internationals [Article] Regist er t o Bid: Please register online at www.christies.com or contact the Christie's Bid Departm ent at: NY: + 1 2 1 2 6 3 6 2 4 3 7 London: + 4 4 (0)2 0 7 3 89 2 6 58 Monday -Friday , 9 am -5pm local tim es

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11/11/13

Mikhail Klodt (1832-1902) | A riverside farm | Russian Pictures Auction</li>

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