Lot 191: Alexei Petrovich Bogoliubov 1824-1896 , Pathway at Pokrovskoe-Glebovo watercolor on paper laid down on board

signed in Cyrillic and dated 77 lower right, inscribed in Cyrillic lower left; inscribed in Cyrillic and numbered #12037 on the reverse watercolor on paper laid down on board

measurements 14 by 9 3/4 in. alternate measurements 35.5 by 25 cm.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
In the nineteenth century, the park of the Pokrovskoe-Streshnevo estate, consisting of both parterre and picturesque gardens, became a favorite pilgrimage site for summer residents and vacationing townspeople--the parterre gardens were accessible only by permission of the owner, while the remaining grounds were accessible with a ticket. A nearby colony emerged of about twenty dachas that were rented to wealthy Muscovites. In the 1850s, doctor A.E. Bers lived there with his family, and they were often visited by Lev Toltstoy, and after some years Tolstoy married Bers' daughter, Sofia Andreevna. Bogoliubov visited Moscow about once a year during the summer, and on several occasions in 1877 and 1890 he stayed at a dacha near Pokrovskoe-Glebovo-Shtreshnevo. In a letter dated June 28, 1877 (the year the present work was executed), he wrote, "...I was at Glebovo-Streshnevo and worked there" (N.V. Ogareva, Chronicle of the life and activity of artists A.P. Bogoliubov, Saratov, 1988). During his later visit in 1890 he worked on the new charter for the Imperial Academy of Artists, and during the following year he created two well-known works inspired by the area, entitled Pokrovskoe-Glebovo and Autumn in the village Glebovo-Shreshnevo (both dated 1891 and found in the Saratov State Museum im. A.N. Radishchev). There are more than two thousand extant drawings by Bogoliubov, but the present composition of a Pathway at Pokrovsoe-Glebovo underscores his virtuosity with particular finesse, developed only after decades of relentless work.