Sotheby's Russian art evening auction brings £5.6m

On Monday Sotheby’s Important Russian Art auction which was exceptionally well-attended brought £5,597,000 (est. £5,755,000-8,415,000). The sale achieved sellthrough rates of 66.7% by lot and 74.6% by value, and established two new artist records for Alexander Golovin and Pavel Kovalevsky. 
  
The top-selling lot of this evening’s auction was Petr Konchalovsky’s exceptionally rare, pre-revolutionary painting 'Tatar Still Life', dated 1916. The painting saw competition from 5 bidders and realised the above-estimate sum of £914,850/$1,415,181 (est. £500,000-700,000). The painting first belonged to influential Polish art critic Waldemar George who presented the painting as a wedding gift to Louis Gautier-Chaumet, editor-in-chief of “La Presse" newspaper, where George served as art critic.


Commenting on the results of this evening’s auction this evening’s auction, Jo Vickery, Senior Director, Jo Vickery, Senior Director and Head of Sotheby’s and Head of Sotheby’s Russian Art Department in London, said:  


“We are very pleased with the results achieved for  tonight’s Important Russian Art Evening Sale, which was led by Konchalovsky’s Tatar Still Life, a fine example of 20th century Russian painting. Artworks that came from the collection of Arthur Ferdinand Hamann performed particularly well, with all of the works offered selling for a combined total of £2,264,900/$3,503,574. We set new artist records for Alexander Golovin and Pavel Kovalevsky, both of whose works came from that private collection, and I was particularly pleased to see such depth of bidding for 19th century Russian classics. Today’s market for Russian Art is more selective than ever before and it is evident that fine works, priced appropriately with exceptional provenance generate competitive bidding; as we saw on our top lots this evening.”
http://www.sothebys.com/en/departments/russian-art/overview.html

Russian Art Week in London

Sotheby’s - November 28 – Important Russian Art 
Sotheby’s - November 29 – Russian Painting
Sotheby’s - November 30 - Russian Works of Art, Fabergé and Icons
Christie's – November 28 – Russian Art
Bonhams - November 30 - Russian Sale
MacDougall's – December 1 - Russian Art Auctions


SOTHEBY'S: The Important Russian Art Evening Auction on Monday, 28 November 2011 will comprise exceptional paintings by artists including Konstantin Makovsky, Petr Konchalovsky, Konstantin Korovin, Natalia Goncharova and Niko Pirosmani, as well as the superb Collection of Arthur Ferdinand Hamann. The Important Private Collection of Works by Alexander Benois on Tuesday, 29 November 2011 is a stand-alone sale of the artist’s most outstanding and intimate works. The Paintings and Works of Art, Fabergé & Icons auction on Tuesday and Wednesday, 29 and 30 November 2011 features some spectacular treasures, including several of Imperial provenance.

Petr Konchalovsky, Tatar Still Life. Oil on canvas, 89.5cm by 106.8cm, Estimate: £500,000-700,000. Photo: Sotheby's


Petr Konchalovsky’s exceptionally rare, pre-revolutionary painting Tatar Still Life, dated 1916 is estimated at £500,000-700,000. It first belonged to influential Polish art critic Waldemar George who presented the painting as a wedding gift to Louis Gautier-Chaumet, editor-in-chief of “La Presse" newspaper, where George served as art critic. The still life was executed at the height of Konchalovsky’s creative output, several years after he founded the Jack of Diamonds artists’ society, which pioneered the Russian avant-garde. Konchalovsky and his peers were deeply influenced by the works of Paul Cézanne, and their innovative form of Russian Cézannism finds its most vivid expression in this distinctive work of art. 


Petr Konchalovsky’s exceptionally rare, pre-revolutionary painting Tatar Still Life, dated 1916 is estimated at £500,000-700,000. It first belonged to influential Polish art critic Waldemar George who presented the painting as a wedding gift to Louis Gautier-Chaumet, editor-in-chief of “La Presse" newspaper, where George served as art critic. The still life was executed at the height of Konchalovsky’s creative output, several years after he founded the Jack of Diamonds artists’ society, which pioneered the Russian avant-garde. Konchalovsky and his peers were deeply influenced by the works of Paul Cézanne, and their innovative form of Russian Cézannism finds its most vivid expression in this distinctive work of art. 


http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=11&int_new=51954

Historical photographs of Konchalovsky in China digitised by University of Bristol

In 1945, Pyotr Konchalovsky (1876-1956) painted a full-length studio portrait of Hu Zipang lying on chaise longue.  While he worked on the portrait, the Chinese ambassador to the USSR, Fu Bingchang photographed the scene.   Hu Zipang was Fu's attache at the embassy in Moscow, as well as being his lover, a war correspondent, and a Communist agent who was spying on Fu.

The negatives survived the fall of Nationalist China and ended up in a trunk in Lincoln, England.  The four photographs (and many others by Fu) were digitised by the Historical Photographs of China project, at the University of Bristol, and are now online at http://chp.vcea.net (search for Konchalovsky, or for the four image reference numbers: Fu-n322, Fu-n324, Fu-n326 and Fu-n327).  In the background of Fu-n322, Konchalovsky's painting 'Hercules and Omphale' (1928) can be seen on the wall.

Historical Photographs of China project, University of Bristol
Images copyright of Yee Wah Foo, a relative of the photographer Fu Bingchang.


Text by Jamie Carstairs, Digitisation Officer, Special Collections, Arts and Social Sciences Library, University of Bristol 


Historical Photographs of China
http://chp.vcea.net
Visualising China
http://visualisingchina.net
Treasures from Special Collections
(supported by the University of Bristol Alumni Fund)
http://bris.ac.uk/is/library/collections/specialcollections/archives/treasures/