Lot 106: f - OLGA LYUDVIGOVNA DELLA-VOS-KARDOVSKAYA, 1875-1952

THE ANTIQUES SHOP

THE ANTIQUES SHOP

127 by 150cm., 50 by 59in.

inscribed with artist's name and title in Cyrillic on old label attached to the stretcher

oil on canvas

EXHIBITED

Moscow, St. Petersburg, Fortieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of D.N.Kardovsky and O.L.Della-Vos-Kardovskya, 1938, Cat. No. 48

LITERATURE

Ex. Cat. Fortieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Art of D.N.Kardovsky and O.L.Della-Vos-Kardovskya, 1938, p.15

NOTE

This work was executed in 1916.

Dimitry Nikolaevich Kardovsky (1866-1943) and Olga Liudvigovna Della-Vos-Kardovskaya (1875-1952)

Combining the fine graphic qualities of nineteenth century art with sharp, modern lines, the work of Dmitry Kardovsky and his wife, Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya, is considered to be a fundamental link between the style of the Silver Age and post-Revolutionary traditionalism.

Dmitry Kardovsky studied in the Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg under Ilya Repin and Pavel Chistyakov, whose principles of precision and sobriety he maintained throughout his entire oeuvre. Although Kardovsky explored various styles including Impressionism and Art Nouveau, his main preoccupation was faithful representation rather than formal experiment.

He enjoyed great success as a book illustrator and occasional political caricaturist, producing highly acclaimed interpretations of Russian literary classics by Chekhov, Gogol, Tolstoy and Turgenev.

At the Academy of Arts, St. Petersburg, Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya showed great talent under the tutelage of Klavdy Lebedev and Tvorozhnikov, and was one of the most widely exhibited Russian female artists at the beginning of the twentieth century. Following the outbreak of war in 1914, Della-Vos-Kardovskaya was unable to take up her post in the International Institute of Arts and Literature in Paris and was forced to remain in St. Petersburg. In 1919, she became the first woman to be named Academician, rising to the post of Professor in 1924.

During the early 1920s the Kardovskys lived in the town of Pereslavl-Saleskii and were actively involved in promoting the arts. Amongst a number of varied cultural projects in which they were involved, they helped to curate local museum collections and produced many designs for local theatrical productions.