African-inspired work gets top bids at Sotheby’s Russian art sales

A new series of Russian art sales kicked off at Sotheby’s on June 7. The auction house presented the bidders in London with some well-known artists as well as ones who may be setting trends on the art market in the years to come.

The decorative art section featured a pair of unique imperial vases believed to have been offered by Russian Emperor Nicholas I as dowry for his daughter Olga. The lot was estimated at 800,000 to 1.2 million pounds. According to Joanna Vickery, chief of Sotheby’s Russian art department, imperial vases often become centerpieces at auction sales, but they are increasingly hard to come by.

In the painting section, an unusually tranquil seascape by Ivan Aivazovsky, “Sunset over Ischia,” estimated at 600,000 to 800,000 pounds, drew a lot of interest among the bidders, but remained unsold.

Hardly any Russian art auction is held without a classic forest landscape painting by Ivan Shishkin, as his paintings traditionally enjoy high demand and high value. His painting “The Dark Wood” was auctioned off this year at 1.21 million pounds.

An African-inspired painting by Alexander Yakovlev proved to be the most expensive piece at evening sales. “Titi and Naranghe, Daughters of Chief Ekibondo,” painted during the artist’s trip to the continent, was sold at 2.5 million pounds, nearly three times as much as the estimate.

Yuri Annenkov’s 1919 portrait of the publisher Zinovii Grzhebin was a rare and valuable find for Sotheby’s. The painting appeared on the market only a short while ago, after having been held in the Grzhebin household for almost 70 years. This week, it went under the hammer with a price tag of 0.8-1.2 million pounds, but was sold to an undisclosed private bidder from somewhere in the CIS countries at as much as 1.77 million pounds.

According to Sotheby’s experts, the Russian art market shows a growing demand for paintings from the first quarter of the 20th century. In that period, many Russian artists were heavily influenced by Western trends, but they would transform these influences through their own ways of thinking.
In the photo: “Portrait of the Future Countess Henri de Boisgelin,” by Léon Bakst, 1924

The daytime decorative art sales featured works by David Burlyuk, Alexander Benois, and Martiros Saryan, among others.

Also in the auction was a 32-piece collection from the craftsmen of the Fabergé firm, including an enameled gold flower among the highlights.

As usual, the daytime decorative art sales presented a wide assortment of silverware, chinaware, jewelry, and cutlery made from precious metals and gems.