Exceptional Russian works on sale

Sotheby’s Russian Paintings Part I auction being held tomorrow will feature exceptional works from the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Among the highlights of the sale is a magnificent view of Santa Maria della Salute in Venice by Alexei Bogoliubov which comes to auction for the first time with an impressive provenance, having been in the collection of King Christian IX of Denmark and subsequently that of Queen Mary of Great Britain.

Conversely, Nikolai Dubovskoy’s The Land is a museum-quality example of a Russian artist turning to his homeland for inspiration, an approach which can be seen in Abram Arkhipov’s composition The Farewell, or in The Stormy Road, a rare work by Leonid Solomatkin.

The most dramatic work in the sale is Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev’s powerful The Kuli-Kuta Dance, a depiction of a West African high priestess dancing in honour of Sango, the great god of thunder and lightning.

Stunningly modern in its rend-ering of movement and space, this key work from the Citroën expedition La Croisière Noire, marks the continuing influence of African Primitivism on masters of Western Art, such as Picasso and Braque. It is valued at between £800,000 and £1 million.

A rare and highly expressive sculpture by Mikhail Vrubel is offered by the descendents of Elena Luksch-Makovskaya. A gift from the artist himself, The Assyrian is considered one of the earliest ceramics Vrubel made at Abramtsevo.