Live Auction 8003Russian Art
Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939)
Lot 70 THE PROPERTY OF AN ENGLISH GENTLEMAN

Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939)

Set design for Khovanshchina: Act I

Closed28 November 2011

Price Realised

GBP 20,000

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Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939)
Set design for Khovanshchina: Act I
signed 'KOROVINE' (lower left), inscribed 'KHOVANCHTCHINA' (lower right)
gouache on board
14¾ x 21¼ in. (37.5 x 54 cm.)

Gift from Sir Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) to the aunt of the present owner.

Specialist note

The 1911 production of Khovanshchina presented at St Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre was one of Korovin's greatest theatrical achievements. Encouraged by the eminent critic Vladimir Stasov, Modest Mussorgsky wrote the five-act opera, which is based on the two-pronged historical resistance to Peter the Great's modernisation of the state. The resistance was led by Prince Khovanvskii and the Streltsy and Dosifey, leader of the Old Believers. The present work probably relates to Feodor Chaliapine's 1924 revival of the opera at the Bolshoi Theatre.