· March 14 Russian Art Auction Day Two ·Here is the press release for the second day of the biannual Russian art sale at Stockholm Auction House.
The second section of the Stockholm Auction House biannual Russian art sale was a tremendous success with good prices achieved across a whole spectrum of Russian applied arts. Once again the Russian market proved to be a little selective and prepared to pay high prices for the best pieces on offer. Most notably, the two fine quality hard-stone carvings by Fabergé. A charming seated shaggy dog with a gold collar, comparable to an example in the collection of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, sold for 850.000 SEK (€90.000), and a delightful huddled group of three puppies selling for 1.600.000 SEK (€170.000). Both of these lots came with an extremely good provenance having once belonged to the Ludvig and Mary Nobel family. As might be predicted, there was also fierce competition for the other Fabergé objects with a white enamel and silver table clock by workmaster Henrik Wigström selling for 1.200.000 SEK (€128.000) also came with a good provenance having been exhibited in the important Fabergé show in Munich in 1986. A small silver-gilt tea and coffee set, by Fabergé, attracted a great deal of interest, finally selling for 700.000 SEK (€74.000). There was keen interest in Fabergé frames with both silver and enamel and wooden examples achieving very good prices. Also of note was a superb jeweled gold and enamel snuff box by the St. Petersburg jeweler Karl Hahn who was one of Fabergé‘s main competitors. This sold for four times the estimate, achieving a price of 1.200.000 SEK (€128.000) in spite of the fact that some of the enamel was damaged. Also of interest was a set of silver-gilt and guilloché enamel nesting vodka cups that were made by the Grachev Brothers of St. Petersburg, one of the best-known Russian silver smiths of the early twentieth century. Spirits in the auction house were raised, and the hammer finally came down for six times the estimate for 625.000 SEK (€66.500), leaving a local vendor thrilled. In total, the two-day sale, including buyer’s premium, brought 82.400.000 SEK (€8.800.000). We are already planning our autumn sale and have a number of interesting items consigned. The success of the sale indicates that the enthusiasm of Russians to purchase examples of their own art remains undiminished, and Stockholm Auction House sales remain a good place to achieve high prices. For more information, please contact  · March 13 Russian Art Auction Day One ·Here is the press release for the first day of the Russian Art sale at Stockholm Auction House, which included paintings, watercolours, drawings, icons, and bronzes. Today, 14 March, will conclude the sale with works of art.
After the first session of the two day sale, Stockholm Auction House sold Russian art today for 10.000.000 SEK more than the estimate (more than €1.000.000). Stockholm Auction House, the world’s oldest auction house, sold, including premium, 65.000.000 SEK (just under €7.000.000) worth of Russian art on the first day of the biannual Russian sale. The auction organised by two of the world’s leading Russian art experts, Martyn Saunders-Rawlins and Ivan Samarine, contained a number of treasures from Sweden, northern Europe and the rest of the world. The top lot in the sale was Konstantin Makovsky‘s Portrait of Mother and Daughter which sold for 7.400.000 SEK (€790.000) against an estimate of 3.000.000 (€320.000). The painting had been consigned from a private home in Stockholm where it had hung since the 1960s until a couple of months ago when the owner contacted the auction house, hoping to sell it for €30.000. The greatest surprise in the sale was the price reached by two large canvases by the seascape painter Prince Arsenii Merschersky, which had lain in a Norwegian attic until they were discovered by Ivan Samarine last year, estimated at 300.000 SEK (€32.000) and sold for 1.100.000 SEK (€117.000) and 1.300.000 SEK (€138.000) respectively. Russian buyers reasserted their love for classical art of the nineteenth century today. Three paintings by Ivan Aivazovsky attracted intense competition. A beautiful Turkish view (30 × 56,5 cm) painted during the artist’s first visit to Asia Minor in 1845 sold for 4.400.000 SEK (€468.000). And a large Ukrainian steppe scene sold for 4.900.000 SEK (€520.000) The session closed with bronzes and icons, many of which doubled and tripled their estimates. The sale finishes tomorrow with silver, porcelain and other works of art. For more information please contact Ivan Samarine · Pre-Sale Press Release ·Here is the press release for the upcoming Russian Art Sale at Stockholm Auction House. Stockholm Auction House Russian Art Sale, 13-14 March 2008
The fifth Stockholm Auction House Russian art sale marks a year of collaboration between the auction house, Martyn Saunders-Rawlins, a highly experienced Russian art expert, and Ivan Samarine of Russian Art Consultancy, London and co-founder of the Sotheby’s Russian Department in London. As the first auction house outside of London and New York to hold sales solely devoted to Russian art, Stockholms Auction House continues to prove its international success and connection to Russia through its now biannual sales. In the past year, the Russian art market has flourished, signifying Russians’ dedication to buying Russian art and the keen interest of foreign collectors. Sweden’s historical relationship with its neighbour has created many private collections of Russian art, making the sales at Stockholm Auction House even stronger. Besides being the oldest auction house in the world, Stockholm Auction House can add a new claim to its fame: its role as a competitor with the Russian art sales in London and New York. The March 2008 sale presents a range of works by well-known Russian artists. Ivan Aivazovsky is particularly well-represented through three canvases that highlight different motifs in the artist’s career: a Turkish coast, a ship in the moonlight and a Ukrainian steppe. Other highlights consist of: a highly characteristic watercolour by Vasili Surikov; an attractive early work by Feodot Sychkov, Amongst the Sunflowers; a sizeable Russian river scene by Konstantin Gorbatov; and a Mikhail Nesterov canvas of a girl in a white dress. Some of the other artists in the sale include Dimitri Krasnopevtsev, Piotr Konchalovsky, Philip Maliavin, Ernst Neizvestny, Anatolii Zverev, Boris Kustodiev, Vasili Petrovich Vereschagin and Alexander Yakovlev. The auction will take place on 13 to 14 March 2008. The works will be on view in Stockholm from Sunday the 9th of March until the day before the auction. For more information please contact · 12 February 2008 ·The catalogue for the Russian art sale at Stockholms Auktionsverk is now online. The sale will take place on the 13th and 14th of March. The works will be on view from March 9.
· 23 January 2008 ·The next Russian art sale at Stockholms Auktionsverk will be on the 13th and 14th of March. The catalogue has just been sent off to the printer, but in the meantime, here are a few exciting, upcoming lots:
There is probably nowhere in the world as majestic as that city; when you’re there you forget about Naples and Venice… -Ivan Aivazovsky, Letter to Count Zubov, written after his first trip to Istanbul in 1845. Aivazovsky saw in Istanbul the most perfect setting for his talent. Sited on a triangular peninsula at the junction of many waters, sweet and salt, the city fulfils all the standards of beauty that the most demanding artist can require. The scene before him presented him with a cityscape, landscape and seascape. Streams ran through groves of bamboo at the mouths of grassy valleys, and scented flowers filled the air. He saw domed mosques and churches, palaces with many courtyards, gardens, bazaars and squares. Istanbul, with its multi-ethnic population, including an Armenian community of merchants, architects and painters, among whom he found many congenial friends, and with its climate, familiar Black Sea food and magical architecture that reflected its long history, was a revelation to the young artist. He was to paint it from every angle; from the heights of Galata, from across the Golden Horn, at sunset, sunrise and under moonlight. The above was published in the only monograph on Aivazovsky written in English: Seas Cities and Dreams, Gianni Caffiero and Ivan Samarine, Alexandria Press, London, 2000, plate 150 p. 214
Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky (1839-1915) Interior with Mother and Daughter, signed and dated 1884, oil on canvas, 128 × 167 cm, 3,000,000-5,000,000 SEK Konstantin Makovsky proved his talent in all genres, but portraits are still his most significant legacy. Grand portraits of ladies have a special place in his work, and he painted them with particular panache. An admirer of feminine beauty, the artist cleverly underlined it with extravagant accessories, profitably adding to the image with luxurious details of the interior, creating a portrait-image. By frequently painting his wife, Yulia Pavlovna Makovsky (1859-1954), born Letkova, who was considered the greatest beauty in St. Petersburg, Makovsky developed an ideal type of feminine beauty and embellished many of his models with these characteristics. To be captured by the brush of Makovsky was the dream of many ladies of the time. The facial features of the lady depicted in our portrait have a decided similarity to the Levkov type. Yulia Pavlovna had three sisters: Yelena, Alexandra and Ekaterina (all three of them beauties), each separated by a year in age; and a fourth, much younger sister Evgenia. It is possible that our portrait depicts one of the Letkov sisters, though we cannot say this with certainty as Makovsky particularly loved this feminine type through which he transformed many of his models. The portrait offered here has all the best characteristics of Makovsky’s grand portraits: it is fantastically composed, has wonderful painterly qualities and magnificently conveys the various textures of lace, fur, silk and velvet. The model is placed in a rich interior, which is decorated with objects in the fashionable, Oriental style: a luxurious carpet, a typical set of a little table with its jug of stamped copper and a divan with cushions of Oriental ornament. The figures of the young lady and the little girl who looks tentatively at her stand out against the colourful mosaic background. The artist makes clever use of the contrast between mature feminine beauty and the sentimental charm of childhood, which strengthen the expressiveness of the image. At the time, Makovsky was a peerless master of the field. It is not by chance that he was seen as the successor of Karl Briullov; the genre of grand portraiture in Russian painting is brilliantly represented by these two painters. Above are exerpts from Elena Nesterova’s upcoming catalogue entry on the portrait. Ms. Nesterova is the author of the only monograph on Konstantin Makovsky (Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky, Zolotoi vek, St. Petersburg, 2003). The present work will be included in the new edition of her book, which will appear at the end of the year. Older · |
