Lot 22: KLODT (VON JURGENSBURG), MIKHAIL Years: 1832-1902

KLODT (VON JURGENSBURG), MIKHAIL Years: 1832-1902 View of Kiev from the Muraviev Gardenssigned and dated 1871 Oil on canvas, 80 by 142 cm.
Provenance: Originally from the collection of the Russian patron of the arts, Ivan Lesnikov, St. Petersburg,1871-1872.
Private collection, Europe.

Authenticity has been confirmed by Vladimir Petrov.
Authenticity certificate from the State Institute of Grabar, experts A. Kiseleva and T. Goryacheva.

Exhibited: 1st Exhibition of the Itinerants, St. Petersburg-Moscow-Kiev-Kharkov, 1871-1872, plate 1-35.

Literature: Index of the 1st Exhibition of the Itinerants, St. Petersburg, 1871, p. 3, No. 23.
G. Romanov, Encyclopedia of the Itinerants' Exhibitions 1871-1923, St. Petersburg, 2003, p. 8, 1-35.

View of Kiev from the Muraviev Gardens presented here for the auctionis one of the finest works ever painted by Klodt. Createdspecifically for the First Exhibition of the Society of the Itinerants, ofwhich Klodt was one of the five founding members, it was particularlydear and important for the artist.

A leading landscape painter of the second half of the nineteenthcentury, Klodt was one of the first Russian artists to combinegenre pictures with epic landscapes. He was born into theKlodt family, which was famous for its artistic talents, and receivedan excellent education (initially from Ivan Khrutsky at theMining Cadet Corps, and then at the Academy of Arts in thelandscape painting class of Maksim Vorobiev). He spent time inFrance and Switzerland as a pensioner, but after only one yearabroad he asked permission to return home in order to 'employthe remainder of my time as a "pensioner" painting scenes fromlife throughout Russia'. The Board of the Academy heeded theartist's request, and Klodt returned to his homeland in 1861. Hetravelled a great deal over the next ten years, preferring to workon subdued views of central Russia and steadily strengtheningthe authenticity of life and national colour in his initially somewhatidyllic compositions.

In 1870 Klodt became one of the most active organisers of theSociety of the Itinerants (or Travelling) Exhibitions. He was not onlyone of the artists who signed the request to the Minister of InternalAffairs to permit the Society to be set up, but also one of the fivepeople, along with Kramskoy, Perov, Miasoyedov and Ge, whoformed its administration. It was during this period that he createdhis finest canvases. Having become a life-long genuine and consistentadherent to the ideas of the Society, Klodt naturally prepared thoroughlyfor the first exhibition. This took place in 1871 and Klodt wasrepresented at it by two works, Midday and View of Kiev from theMuraviev Gardens. Critics of the time commented: "The best landscapesat the Itinerants (or Travellers', Peredvizhniki) Exhibition areby Professor Baron Mikhail Klodt and Mr Savrasov', who was showinghis painting The Rooks Have Returned at the exhibition.

The view that Klodt depicted in his painting, Andreyevsky Hill withits five-domed baroque Church of St Andrew, built between 1749and 1754 to a commission from Empress Elizabeth and designed bythe great architect Rastrelli, was indeed one of the most picturesquein Kiev. It is seen from the garden of Andrey NikolayevichMuraviev, a well-known church historian and religious writer. In1854 Muraviev decided to move permanently from St Petersburg toKiev and he purchased a hilly wasteland near the Church ofSt Andrew; he ordered it to be cleared, a garden to be laid out anda wooden cottage to be built initially. However, the writer onlymoved in when he retired in 1866, and by this time a sturdy househad already been built in his garden in Kiev. Empress MariaAlexandrovna visited the Ukraine in 1869, and Muraviev accompaniedher to the "holy places of Kiev". The empress's entourageincluded the poet Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, and soon after hisdeparture he wrote the famous lines dedicated to Muraviev s beautifulgarden and its owner; they accurately describe the romanticisedpanorama that Klodt depicted.

"There, high on a precipice, the ethereal, shining church rearsup and amazes the eyes as it seems to float towards the heavens.This is where St Andrew's cross shines even to this day, glisteningin Kiev's sky, a holy guardian of this place. Your dwellingplacebows reverentially at its feet, and now you live there, noidle inhabitant, in the evening of your days."