LONDON.- MacDougall Auctions announced the highlights of their 3 Sales during the upcoming London Russian Art Week, presenting a collection of more than 550 Lots. Last June’s Russian Art Week saw MacDougall’s exceed £12.4 million in sales, outselling Christies, Bonhams and Phillips, to become the second largest auction house for Russian Paintings.
Evening Sale: Tuesday 25 November 19:00. Post War & Contemporary Sale: Wednesday 26 November 10.30. XIX and XX Century Sale: Thursday 27 November 10:30 and 14:00. Viewing: Saturday 22 - Sunday 23 November 14:00-18:00. Monday 24 November 11:00-18:30. Tuesday 25 November 11.00-14.00.
The Evening and XIX and XX Century Russian Art Sales are devoted to classical art of the 19th and 20th centuries. These two Sales will include masterpieces by Anisfeld, Begrov, Bogoliubov, Exter, Klodt, Konchalovsky, Korovin, Lagorio, Levitan and Somov, plus works from the significant Soviet “Austere” style school. The Post War and Contemporary Russian Art Sale will focus both on non-conformist masterpieces as well as significant examples of more contemporary art.
Evening Art Sale Highlights include:
1. Constantine Somov, 122 original ink drawings for Le Livre de la Marquise. (£1,500,000 - £3,000,000). These original drawings for this important erotic book created a frenzy of interest when exhibited in Moscow last month.
2. Isaak Levitan, The Illumination of the Moscow Kremlin. (£900,000 - £1,800,000) Levitan’s renowned work was executed in 1896 in honour of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II. Decorated and festively lit, the Moscow Kremlin is juxtaposed with the sweeping panorama of the Moskva River, and represents an extremely rare example of a Moscow landscape in Levitan’s work.
3. Mikhail Klodt, View of Kiev from the Muraviev Gardens. (£800,000 - £1,200,000) This magnificent canvas by Mikhail Klodt was executed during one of his trips through the Ukraine especially for the first of the ‘Association of Wandering Exhibitions’ in 1871, where he won great acclaim in the press and amongst his contemporaries.
4. Aleksandr Begrov, Approach to St. Petersburg on the Neva. (£400,000 - £600,000) Aleksandr Begrov’s canvas Approach to St. Petersburg on the Neva portrays one of his favourite scenes, looking towards the city, which developed at a furious pace during the late 19th century.
5. Maksim Vorobiev, View of Blagoveschensky Bridge and St. Petersburg Embankment. (£500,000 - 700,000) View of Blagoveschensky Bridge and St. Petersburg Embankment by the renowned artist, Maksim Vorobiev is one of the best of this master’s acclaimed series of St. Petersburg landscapes.
6. Sculpture from 1910 to the 1930s - The wood sculptures occupy a special place in the collection presented for auction. They include a remarkable self portrait by Vera Mukhina (£40,000 - £60,000) which was executed by the artist who was on the threshold of a period of major works as part of her monumental propaganda project; a woman’s head by Stephen Erzia (£60,000 - £90,000), belongs to his Argentinian period, and was sculpted using a wood, quebracho, native to South America, and finally one of the famous nudes by Sergei Konenkov (£50,000 – £70,000).
MacDougall's Russian Post War and Contemporary Art Sale Highlights include:
The Post War and Contemporary Art Auction boasts a number of remarkable collections, including masterpieces of artists of the ‘60s: Kharitonov, Nemukhin, Plavinsky, Rabin, Rukhin, Sitnikov and Yankilevsky. The Sale will also boast a selection of glittering non-conformist works assembled by a Pakistani diplomat in Moscow in the 1970s.
There will also be an opportunity to view a number of lyrical works by Faibisovich, items by Zvezdochetov, and artistic projects by Salakhova. Post-conceptual artists are enjoying an ever increasing popularity at auction, and MacDougall’s is offering the broadest possible range of these works in this Sale.
