Live Auction 17187Russian Art
Sergei Chekhonin (1878-1936)
Lot 2

Sergei Chekhonin (1878-1936)

Sixteen designs for 'Ruslan and Liudmila'

Closed3 June 2019

Price Realised

GBP 37,500

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Sergei Chekhonin (1878-1936)
Sixteen designs for 'Ruslan and Liudmila'
eight signed in Cyrillic 'Sergei Chekhonin', three signed in Cyrillic 'S. Chekhonin', five signed with Cyrillic initials 'S. Ch.'; each inscribed with title and numbered (on the reverse or backing sheet)
eight pencil, watercolour, gouache and ink on paper, two octagonal; eight pencil and ink on paper; unframed
7 5/8 x 5 ¾ in. (19.4 x 14.6 cm.); and smaller
Executed between 1921-1928
together with a letter to the artist from the editor Zinovii Grzhebin (1877-1929)

Acquired directly from Pierre Ino (1909-1989), stepson of the artist, by Alexandre Djanchieff in Paris in the late 1980s.
By descent to the present owner.

Specialist note

In addition to being commissioned for an unpublished edition of Pushkin's classic poem 'Ruslan and Liudmila', some of Chekhonin's marvellous illustrations were also used as designs for a porcelain tea service by the State Porcelain Factory, as shown in L. Andreeva, Sovetskii farfor 1920-1930 gody [Soviet porcelain 1920-1930], Moscow, 1975, illustrated pp. 232-233, in the Exhibition catalogue, S. Chekhonin. 1878-1936, Moscow, 1994, illustrated p. 120, listed pp. 119-120, and in A. Emdin, Mnogolikii [The multifaceted] Chekhonin, Moscow, 2003, illustrated p. 146.