Lot 529: matvei chizhov (1838-1916), frolicsome girl, 1878

a young peasant girl gingerly crosses a pond on a tree limb while trying to avoid a bull frog in the water beneath her feet, inscribed with signature and with mark of the St. Petersburg foundry of Félix Chopin

height 61 in. 155 cm. excluding wood plinth

L.P. Shaposhnikova, Skulptura XVIII-nachalo XX veka, Leningrad, 1988, p. 159, no. 1389
Gosudarstvennaia Tretiakovskaia galereia, katalog sobraniia: Skulptura XVIII-XIX vekov, Moscow, 2000, no. 394, p. 271.
Plenniki krasoty: Russkoe akademicheskoe i salonnoe iskustvo, 1830-1910, Moscow, 2004, p. 273.

This composition was among the best-loved of this popular sculptor's compositions. Originally cast at the Chopin foundry in 1873, in 1875 it was cited when the Russian Academy of Arts awarded Chizhov a gold medal for liveliness of sculptural expression. The Frolicsome Girl, exhibited in the Russian Section at the 1878 Paris exposition universelle, was awarded a gold medal by the international jury. In honor of Chizhov's international accomplishment, Chopin cast a number of new full-sized editions. These are now included in the collections of such prominent Russian museums as the State Russian Museum and the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.