+ Expand

Artist or Maker: Konstantin Alekseevich Korovin (1861-1939)

+ Expand

Description: The meeting
signed, inscribed and dated 'Constant Korovine/Paris 1930/Caucase'(lower left) and further inscribed in Russian 'The ray of the evening sun dwindled behind the mighty mountain' (lower left)
oil on canvas
32 x 45 in. (81.3 x 114.3 cm.)

+ Expand

Notes: On the advice of A. V. Lunacharsky, the People's Commissar for Education, Korovin and his family moved to Paris in 1923. Due to ill-health and financial concerns, Korovin became tied to the French capital and was never to return to Russia.
Unable to reconcile himself to the term 'emigré', Korovin yearned for his homeland up until his death in 1939, confessing in his memoirs that '...nowhere has that comfortingly mournful feeling, unusual allure, deep beauty...like a spring evening in Russia'.
The present lot, inscribed with lines taken from Mikhail Lermontov's poem 'The meeting' (Svidani'e, 1841) captures Korovin's nostalgia for the exotic and wild landscapes of Russia immortalised in Lermontov's poetry.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.