Lot 21: PYOTR PETROVICH VERESCHAGIN, 1836-1886 VIEW OF SUKHUM-KALE

signed in Cyrillic l.r. and titled l.l.

oil on canvas laid on board

CATALOGUE NOTE

Petr Vereschagin began his career as a fresco painter in Perm, entering the Imperial Academy of Art in the late 1850s.

He travelled frequently around Russia, depicting many of its prominent towns; a view of Sukhum-Kale is recorded as having been painted around 1876 (Bulgakov, Nashi khudozhniki, p.87.

Vereschagin produced several versions of his cityscapes and Sukhum-Kale is no exception: an almost identical work hangs in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Both these versions display the same mastery of perspective, which accords the composition an impressive sense of space and light.

Sukhum is the Capital of present-day Abkhazia, located on the Black Sea Coast. In 1578, it was captured by the Turks, who re-named it Sukhum-Kale (Fortress of Sukhum). After a successful occupation by a Russian landing force in 1810, a Russian garrison was stationed there for the first half of the nineteenth century. Sukhum-Kale soon developed into an important trading port, however the city was razed to the ground twice during the Russo-Turkish wars of 1853-56 and 1877-78.

44.5 by 71cm., 17 1/2 by 29in.