Lot 67: BERNHARDT CHRISTIAN BORCHERT, 1862-1945

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, LATVIA

KNIGHTS OF THE LIVONIAN ORDER

171 by 245cm., 67¼ by 96½in.

signed in Latin and dated 1911 l.l

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

The Collection of Ilya Danilovich Polyansky, Russia until 1940s

Thence by descent

LITERATURE

J.Silinis, Latvian Art 1800-1914, Stockholm: Daugava Publishing House, 1980, vol. II, illustrated p.147 (illustrated)

NOTE

Knights of the Livonian Order is undoubtedly one of the finest pictures by Bernhard Borchert to have been offered at auction.

Borchert was a key figure in Latvian art at the turn of the century. A graduate of the Academy of Arts, St. Petersbur, Borchert worked mainly in Latvia, teaching at the Academy of Fine Art in Riga, and later in Germany from 1919.

He was perhaps best known as a graphic artist, providing illustrations for satirical journals, novels and many poster designs.

The early 1900s in Latvia saw a shift towards a more nationally conscious art, formally established in Riga in 1905 with the opening of an annual exhibition devoted to the work of Latvian artists. Borchert was asked to design the poster (fig.1), a measure of his distinction at the time. Over the following years he regularly exhibited many of his own symbolist and historical pictures at the City of Riga Art Museum, including, at one point, a work entitled Die Ordensritter, which, it has been suggested, is the offered work.

The Livonian Knights was a crusading order founded in 1202 to convert the pagan peoples of the Baltic in what is today Latvia and Estonia. The order of German warrior monks obeyed the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Their distinctive habit, bearing a sword in red beneath a cross, led to their being called Knights of the Sword.

Borchert's monumental composition reveals the many layers of his artistic influences. The historical subject is reminiscent of the folklore-inspired Realism of Viktor Vasnetsov and Mikhail Nesterov in Moscow, who also sought a specifically National theme in Russian art. A modern sense of line more typical of Art Nouveau design is achieved by the striking use of verticals throughout the whole picture. The palette of rose pinks and orange filtering through into the darkness of the forest infuses this sombre scene with a sense of Romanticism one would expect in a fairytale.