Lot 282: ALEKSANDR EVGEN'EVICH IAKOVLEV (1887-1938)

Portrait of Vladimir Bashkirov signed and dated 'A. Yakovleff Paris, 1934' (lower right) sanguine on paper 271/2x211/2in. (69.8x54.6cm.) the back is signed 'I authorise the person depicted is Vladimir N. Bashkirov, painted by Alex Yakovlev, 1934 in Paris' signed and dated 'Peter Bashkirov (son of V. Baskirov), Dec. 23, 2001' NOTES Described by John Singer Sargent as one of the greatest living draughtsmen, Aleksandr Iakovlev was educated at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts and actively participated in the Mir iskusstva group. Having settled in Paris in 1919, he was chosen as the official painter of the Exp‚dition Citr”en Centre Afrique (La CroisiŠre Noire) in 1924, and of the trans-Asia expedition La CroisiŠre Jaune in 1931, organised by the car manufacturer Citr”en. Iakovlev sketched and drew prolifically along the way. Large oil paintings were executed from sketches on his return to Paris. La CroisiŠre Jaune left Beirut in April 1931 crossing Iraq, Persia Afghanistan, the Himalayas, the Gobi desert, Mongolia to Beijing and then on to Saigon in Indochina the following year. Many of the pictures were exhibited at the Galerie Jean Charpenterie in Paris in 1933, see, M. Schaffer, in, New York A La Vieille Russie, Alexandre Iacovleff, 1993, pp. 4-8 The sitter, Vladimir Nikolaevich Bashkirov was a president of the Volga Kamskii bank in Nizhnii-Novgorod. At the time of the February 1917 revolution, he became a close friend of Aleksndr Kerenskii, leader of the Provisional Government. After the Bolshevik Revolution, he left for Tokyo, and moved to the United States in 1919.