Lot 36A: Karl Fedorovich Gun (1830-1877)

Odalisque
signed in Cyrillic and dated 'K. Gun./1875.' (lower right)
oil on canvas
22 1/4 x 29 1/8 in. (56.5 x 74 cm.)

St. Petersburg, Moscow and elsewhere, 6th Wanderers' Exhibition, 1878-9, no. 40.

Vsemirnaia illiustratsiia, 1878, XX, p. 445.
F. I. Bulgakov, Nashi khudozhniki, St. Petersburg, 1890, I, p. 130-131, illustrated.
Illustrets zurnals, Prague, 1925, no. 5-7.
A. Eglit, Karl Fedorovich Gun, Riga, 1955, p. 95, no. 60, listed.
G. B. Romanov, Tovarishchestvo peredvizhnykh khudozhestvennykh vystavok, St. Petersburg, 2003, p. 32, no. 18, illustrated.

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

'Odalisque' is a striking example of Russian Orientalism conceived by Karl Gun at the peak of his creative powers. The meditative expression of the Odalisque, coupled with the opulence of her surroundings, is characteristic of Gun's unique blend of realism and melodrama.

Born in the village of Zissegal', Karl Gun worked in the studio of the lithographer V. G. Pape before embarking on academic study at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art in 1852 where he was tutored by P. V. Basin. Having been awarded a succession of silver medals, in 1861 Gun finally received his gold for 'Sofiia Vitovtovna at the Wedding of Vasilii Temnyi' (1861, State Historical Museum of Latvia) and became a pensioner of the Academy. During the period 1863-72 Gun travelled widely in Europe, visiting Leipzig, Dresden, Prague, London, Munich and Paris where he exhibited at the Salons.

By the early 1870s, Professor Gun had achieved considerable critical and commercial success with works in the collections of K. T. Soldatenkov ('Scene from St. Bartholomew's nights', 1869, State Russian Museum), Grand Prince Vladimir Aleksandrovich ('Italian Girl', 1869, Yerevan Art Gallery) and the Emperor himself ('Gypsy', 1870, State Russian Museum). Gun's academic approach to realism, in the manner of Bogoliubov, Ge and Polenov, lent itself to classical subjects and genre scenes which the critic V. Stasov, amongst others, admired: 'All of it is painted so wonderfully and with such life...that everyone, I think, would want to have such a picture at home...The viewer sees a scene which isn't particularly rich or new, but the picture is painted so magnificently! With such subtle feeling in every tile, in every piece of wall and in every detail of a figure, dress and air, it wouldn't be a bad thing to teach...to many of our artists' (V. Stasov, Isbrannye sochineniia, Moscow, 1937, I, p. 231).

'Odalisque' was painted in 1875, one year after the artist's marriage to the daughter of the architect Monigetti, Vera Ippolitovna. Vera often modelled for her husband and there is some similarity between her and the exotic innocent of the 'Odalisque'. Gun had previously shown interest in ethnography, as seen in his careful rendering of the costumes, villages and people of the provinces of Viatka and Kazan in the early 1860s, but in 'Odalisque' Gun allowed himself to indulge in the oriental fantasy of the harem. The influence of Orientalism, which sought its inspiration in the cultures of the North Africa and Middle East, is clear, yet Gun's 'Odalisque' is more than a display of cultural accuracy and technical virtuosity. The exquisite detail of the interior and the almost photographic representation of the surface textures of the tiles and carpets are surpassed by the porcelain features of the Odalisque herself. Her enigmatic expression is enthralling and casts her surroundings into obscurity.

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