Lot 73: A church on a street near Tours

Vasilii Shukhaev (1887-1973)
A church on a street near Tours
signed in Cyrillic and dated 'V. Shukhaev. 1929' (lower right)
tempera on canvas
30¾ x 24 in. (78 x 61 cm.)

Moscow, V. I. Shukhaev. The 90th anniversary exhibition, 1977.

Exhibition catalogue V. I. Shukhaev. The 90th anniversary exhibition, Moscow, 1977.

The collection of Svyatoslav Richter, Moscow.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
One of the greatest musicians of the 20th century, Svyatoslav Richter (1915-1997) was a renowned art connoisseur. His collection, now a centrepiece in the Moscow Museum of Private Collections, was formed by both gifts and purchases of works by painters whom Richter knew for many years. The city landscape by V. I. Shukhaev Church on a street near Tours (1929) from the musician's collection was shown in Shukhaev's Jubilee exhibition in 1977. This exhibition revived the name of one of the most talented Russian painters of the twentieth century after decades of repression, exile and oblivion.

Vasilii Ivanovich Shukhaev (1887-1973) was a painter, graphic artist, theatre designer and an art professor. Renowned for his refined drawing technique he was particularly noted for his portraits both in Russia and in Europe.

Born into a working class family, Shukhaev lost his parents at a young age. His natural talent allowed him to enrol in the Stroganov Art School in Moscow (1897-1906) and then continue his education at the prestigious Higher Artistic School of the Academy of Arts in St Petersburg (1906-1912), where he met Alexander Iacovleff. A friendship was formed which lasted until Iacovleff's sudden death in 1938. Both friends studied under Dmitry Kardovskii, who cultivated the art of fine draughtmanship, love and understanding of the Old Masters' treatment of palette in his students: 'You taught us about the possibilities of art and handicrafts; you always told us that you were not making painters but craftsmen out of us. The idea of craftsmanship devours me' as Shukhaev later wrote to his teacher (I. Miamlin, Vasilii Ivanov Shukhaev, Leningrad, 1972, p. 12).

Together with Iacovleff, Shukhaev founded The Painting Workshop of St. Luke to revive the painting techniques of the Old Masters. While working together, the artists developed the Russian school of Neoclassicism in the beginning of the 20th century. Shukhaev travelled in Italy, taught in Petrograd and executed remarkable portraits of his contemporaries; he also decorated manor houses and churches as well as exhibiting his works.

In 1920 the artist decided to leave Soviet Russia and join Iacovleff, who had already achieved great success among Parisian art collectors. While living abroad, Shukhaev proved himself a typical Russian painter. He kept up the correspondence with his teacher Kardovskii and sent new paintings for exhibitions in Soviet Russia.

The peculiarities of the Russian tradition and the influence of Kardovskii's school are clearly shown in the series of city landscapes, created by the painter in 1928-1929 during his trips to France. There are no bright colours, blinding light or romantic motifs as in works by French painters. The present work, Church on a street near Tours is one of the series of works created in the Tours region.

Shukhaev did not choose picturesque foreshortenings or amazing perspectives. A narrow street in a medieval town where time has stopped, is reproduced with warm and soft ochre colours. The painter's chosen medium, tempera, is stricter and does not allow playing with transparency, which emphasises the monumentality of the composition and creates the effect of time standing still. This technique was used by the Old Masters, whom Shukhaev followed throughout his life. After some years, he returned to the Soviet Union but was exiled to Central Asia in the 1930s.