2 December 2015
Portrait of Louis Charles de Bode
Watercolour and gouache on ivory, laid on card, 6.5 by 5 cm (oval).
3,000-5,000 GBP
Executed c. 1812.
The present lot, a portrait of the Baron Lev Karlovich Bode (1787–1859) or Louis Charles de Bode, was included in the famous exhibition of 2,286 portraits by the Russian artists from the XVIII–XIX centuries, organised by Sergei Diaghilev at the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg in 1905. The inscription “Le Baron Louis Charles de Bode, Colonel du Rt des Chasseurs de la Garde de S.M. l’Empereur de Russie, Aide de camp du Maréchal Prince de Wittgenstein/né le 31. Janvier/1787.” and the number “No 426” on the verso of the work, possibly date back to the exhibition.
Provenance: Collection of the Countess Natalia Sollogub (1851–1915), née Bode-Kolycheva, a granddaughter of the sitter, Moscow, until after 1905.
Exhibited: Istoriko-khudozhestvennaya vystavka russkikh portretov, Tauride Palace, St Petersburg, 6 March–26 September 1905.
Literature: Russkie portrety XVIII i XIX stoletii. Izdanie Velikogo Knyazya Nikolaya Mikhailovicha, vol. II, issue 3, St Petersburg, Ekspeditsiya zagotovleniya gosudarstvennykh bumag, 1906, p. LXI, illustrated; No. 81, listed.
Russkie portrety XVIII i XIX stoletii. Izdanie Velikogo Knyazya Nikolaya Mikhailovicha, vol. II, reprint of the 1909 edition, Moscow, Tri veka istorii, 2000, p. LXI, illustrated; No. 81, listed.
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.