Lot 160: ATTRIBUTED TO FOTY KRASITSKY

1873-1944 THE GUEST FROM ZAPOROZHIE inscribed in Cyrillic l.l. and dated Kiev VII 1912 l.r. oil on canvas 123 by 179.5cm, 48 1/2 by 70 3/4 in.

Krasitsky was the nephew of the great Ukrainian nationalist poet Taras Shevshenko, whose work in many ways forms the foundation of Ukrainian literature. Krasitsky showed an aptitude for drawing and painting from an early age, and his studies eventually led him from Kiev and Odessa to St. Petersburg, where for a short period he was taught by Ilya Repin. Repin, himself Ukrainian, encouraged him to give expression to his Ukrainian roots, and is known to have praised his early sketches for what was to become his greatest masterpiece, The Guest from Zaporozhie. The painting depicts a young child, who will one day himself become a Cossack, being introduced on a summer’s day to a visiting guest of his grandfather’s, himself a former Cossack. The child gazes shyly at his own future. The painting is one of the best-loved Ukrainian images, and often the subject of school dissertations. At least three versions are known; one of 1901, one of 1915 and one of 1916, in the Lvov and Ukrainian National Museums in Kiev. The present version is dated 1912, and is larger in size than any of the three mentioned above. The Cyrillic inscription in the lower left corner appears to read Velichenyia s pechati v kraskakh.