Lot 301: Karl Briullov (1799-1852)

Karl Briullov (1799-1852)
Portrait of Prince Mikhail Andreevich Obolensky (1806-1873)
pencil on paper
10¾ x 9 in. (27 x 23 cm.)
Executed circa 1843

London, Belgrave Square, Exhibition of Russian Art, June - July 1935, no. 303.
Moscow, Museum of Private Collections, Pushkin's Contemporaries: 100 Portraits in Watercolour from a Parisian Collection, May - July 1999.

M. Baruch & I. Sakharova, Russian Portraits in Watercolour, 1825-1855, Paris, 1994, pp. 38 and 39, illustrated.

Collection of Martin Arafeloff.

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This incredibly rare study by the esteemed Karl Briullov depicts the famous historian and archivist, Prince Mikhail Andreevich Obolensky (1806-1873). His attire of Old Russian clothing serves to emphasise his interest in Russian history; Prince Obolensky devoted his life to the study of Russian and Slavic histories and cultures, publishing a number of important works including 'Money of Great Novgorod' and 'Sbornik Kniazia Obolenskogo', a biographical dictionary in eleven volumes. Bruillov's subsequent magnificent and opulent finished oil of the Prince forms an integral part of the Tretyakov Gallery's collection.

Already page to Alexander I, in 1825, the young prince became standard bearer to the Guard Finlandsky regiment and went on to become a second lieutenant. Obolensky participated in the Russo-Turkish war and was wounded at the Battle of Varna in 1828. After completing his military service in 1831 and having received a golden sword, Obolensky was appointed college assessor to the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow in 1832. He became court councillor in 1836 and a member of the archaeological committee and collegiate councillor in 1839. In 1840, the prince became Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' archives to whom he bequeathed his magnificent collection of books, historical objects and portraits.