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Artist or Maker: Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov (1865-1911)

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Provenance: Anonymous sale; Christie's, Geneva, 17 November 1993, as 'Landscape'.

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Notes: Valentin Serov (1865-1911) was the son of the well-known composer Aleksandr Serov. The young artist's talent for drawing and observation was encouraged in the family home in St. Petersburg, where close acquaintances included the painters Il'ia Repin and Mark Antokolskii. Repin soon became Serov's first tutor. In 1880 he sent his talented student to the Academy of Arts, where Serov continued his studies under Pavel Chistiakov.
Valentin Serov's artistic outlook was greatly influenced by the central-Russian countryside, his motives often including its groves, fields and villages. At Abramtsevo, the estate of the art-patron Mamontov, and at nearby Domotkanovo, both in the surroundings of Moscow, Serov painted some of the pictures that were to become among his most loved.
The sketch is one of many studies that the artist executed for 'October. Domotkanovo' (1895, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow). The horse depicted in the present study can be seen to the right of the composition.

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