Lot 20: KONDRATENKO, GAVRIIL Years: 1854-1924 View of

KONDRATENKO, GAVRIIL Years: 1854-1924 View of Gurzuf, Crimeasigned and dated 1901 Oil on canvas, 98 by 68 cm.
Provenance: Private collection, Russia.
Private collecton, USA.

Authenticity has been confirmed by Vladimir Petrov.

Exhibited: Exhibition of St. Petersburg Union of Artists, St. Petersburg, 1904.

Literature: Journal Niva, St. Petersburg, 1904, N17, illustrated.
Journal Rodina, 1904, N 35, illustrated.

Related literature: For similar works see G. Romanov and A. Muratov, Artists of the Russian Salon (1850-1917), Zolotoi Vek, St. Petersburg 2004, p. 308.

A Russian landscape painter and a representative of the academicsalon trend in Russian landscape painting at the turn ofthe century, Kondratenko was renowned for his Crimean landscapes.After graduating from M. K. Klodt's class in the St.Petersburg Academy of Arts with a small gold medal and the titleof First Class Artist Grade 2 awarded to him for his workNight in Bakhchisarai, Kondratenko retained a love for the lushbeauty of southern Russian nature throughout his life. Everyyear he would head off to the Crimea or the Caucasus seekingnew inspiration, and would invariably return weighed down withseveral dozen first class romanticised views. His numerous "exotic"southern landscapes, which were painted in the traditions ofthe seaside resort compositions of L. O. Premazzi, with the accompanyinglighting effects, moonlit nights and elegant figures,enjoyed enormous success among the fashionable public of theSt. Petersburg salons during the 1880s and 1890s. For example,Grand Prince Mikhail Nikolaevich purchased from the artistView Of Kazbek and Stolovaya Mountain from the Environs ofVladikavkaz,and Baron P. Derviz purchased The Ruins of anAncient Fortress Close to Balaclava; and the Crimean landscapesSevastopol by Moonlight (1882), Sudak Bay by Evening (1884) andBakhchisarai by Night came to be regarded as genuine masterpieceseven during his lifetime.

An example of Kondratenko's popular Crimean canvases whichwere so highly prized by his contemporaries is the work presentedhere for auction, View of Gurzuf, Crimea. Its composition incorporatesthe artist's favoured motif of a rocky seashore overwhich is diffused a hazy pre-sunset light. The representation ofsuch light effects was always Kondratenko's forte.

The artist's authority was so great that when in the 1880s heagain went to the Crimea to make some sketch studies andcame across a beggar woman in Sevastopol who turned out tobe a former Sister of Mercy he was able to solicit the assistanceof his influential acquaintances in the capital who were admirersof his work, and quickly set up the "St. PetersburgGuardianship Committee of the Sisters of the Red Cross" underthe patronage of the granddaughter of Emperor Nicholas I,Princess Yevgeniya Maksimilianovna Oldenburgskaya.