Lot 132: ALEXANDER ALEXANDROVICH KISELEV

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, FRANCE 1837-1911 SOUTHERN UKRAINIAN LANDSCAPE signed in Cyrillic l.l.; further inscribed in Cyrillic on the reverse oil on canvas 35.5 by 55cm, 14 by 21 3/4 in.

This picturesque depiction of fishermen and peasants returning home at dusk is thought to date from the early 1870s, an exceptionally early period in Kiselev's oeuvre, while he was working in Kharkov as a bank clerk. The architecture and the peasants' headwear are typical of Southern Ukraine, and the elements of the landscape recall his View of the Outskirts of Kharkov (1875, The Donesk Regional Art Museum). The diagonal brushstrokes, particularly evident in the sky, are hallmarks of Kiselev's painterly technique.