4 June 2014 Russian Art Auctions
4 June 2014
* 40. YUON, KONSTANTIN (1875-1958)
Gates of the Rostov Kremlin, signed.
Oil on canvas, 63 by 81 cm.
160,000-190,000 GBP
Executed in 1906.
Provenance: Collection of I. Isadzhanov, Moscow.
Private collection, Europe.
Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the expert Yu. Rybakova.
Exhibited:Vystavka kartin K.F. Yuona. K 25-letiyu khudozhestvennoi deyatel’nosti, The State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 1926, No. 7.
Sovetskie khudozhniki starshego pokoleniya, Moscow, June 1958 (label on the reverse).
Literature: A. Koiranskii, K.F. Yuon, St Petersburg, A. Kogan, 1918, p. 68, listed under works from 1906.
Exhibition catalogue, Vystavka kartin K.F. Yuona. K 25-letiyu khudozhestvennoi deyatel’nosti, Moscow, 1926, p. 30, No. 7, listed.
N. Tretyakov, K.F. Yuon, Moscow, 1957, p. 103, listed under works from 1906.
Yu. Osmolovskii, Konstantin Fedorovich Yuon, Moscow, Sovetskii khudozhnik, 1982, p. 226, listed under works from 1906.
The present lot was published as a postcard by the Community of Saint Eugenia before 1926.
Konstantin Yuon’s cycle of works dedicated to the ancient Russian town of Rostov the Great dates back to 1903, when a record in his handwriting appeared in the visitors’ book of the Rostov Museum: “Konstantin Yuon, artist from Moscow”. From that time on Rostov was for many years a place of pilgrimage for the artist. He came to work here from 1904 to 1906 and again from 1913 to 1916. The majestic ancient architecture became the subjects of many of Yuon’s Rostov paintings. The majority of these works are now held in the State Tretyakov Gallery and Russian Museum as well as local museums in Omsk, Ryazan and Serpukhov.
The outstanding Gates of the Rostov Kremlin, offered here at auction, is well known from books. Painted in 1906, it differs dramatically from Yuon’s other works of this period which are based on the interaction between a genre element in the foreground and a wide panorama of the Kremlin (Fine Day. Rostov the Great, 1906; Spring Evening. Rostov the Great, 1906; Winter. Rostov the Great, 1906).
Yuon depicts a bright summer’s day but does not drench the scene in light, instead he makes his sunlit world, and first and foremost the architecture, extremely clear and well-defined in terms of its mass, while at the same time conveying the tremulousness and transparency of the summer atmosphere. The variety of the colour and light effects, the air and sunshine which pervade the picture, the purity of the paints, the colour in the shadows, the lively texture of his free brushwork – all these superlative aspects of Yuon’s technique are present in Gates of the Rostov Kremlin.
Notes on symbols:
* Indicates 5% Import Duty Charge applies.
Ω Indicates 20% Import Duty Charge applies.
§ Indicates Artist's Resale Right applies.
† Indicates Standard VAT scheme applies, and the rate of 20% VAT will be charged on both hammer price and premium.