Lot 40: ALEXANDER MIKHAILOVICH GERASIMOV

1881-1963 VIEW OF MOSCOW, NEAR MOSSOVET signed with initials in Cyrillic and dated 47 l.r. watercolour and gouache on paper 50 by 64cm, 19 3/4 by 25 1/2 in.

Moscow, Akademiya Khudozhestv SSSR, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Gerasimov: vystavka proizvedenii k 100-iiu so dnya rozhdeniya, 1981 Moscow, Moskovskii Souz Khudozhnikov, Vystavka rabot moskovskikh khudozhnikov k 800-letiu Moskvy, September 1947

Aleksandr Mikhailovich Gerasimov Centenary Exhibition catalogue, Moscow: Izobrazitelnoe iskusstvo, 1981, listed under works executed in 1947 I.Blianov¿, Aleksandr Gerasimov, Moscow: Izobrazitelnoe iskusstvo, 1988, plate 118, listed and illustrated

The family of the artist

In September 1947 the Soviet government held grand celebrations across the capital dedicated to the 800th anniversary of Moscow. To commemorate the event, Gerasimov, the first appointed President of the Academy of Arts of the USSR, executed a series of works in gouache and watercolour capturing the iconic urban landscape. In the offered lot the composition focuses on Tverskaya, the central street of the capital city, stretching from the Triumphant Square to the Kremlin and historically referred to as the path to Tver from as early as the seventh century. Guarding the vast avenue, the artist captures the deep scarlet walls of the City Administration building, erected in 1917. Gerasimov later worked this view into an oil painting Moscow, near MOSSOVET (1958, Museum-Estate A.M. Gerasimov, Tambov, fig.1). In the final canvas, the perspective has shifted to the left to accommodate the celebrated sculpture of Yuri Dolgorukii, the city's founder. As I.Blianova writes, ‘it is not surprising in his practice to find frequent examples of successful compositions originally made in watercolour and later executed on canvas. This was evident in the finest works from the series dedicated to the 800th anniversary of Moscow’ (Aleksandr Gerasimov, Moscow: Izobrazitelnoe iskusstvo, 1988, p.18).