Lot 91: PAUL LOUIS BOUCHARD, 1853-1937

signed l.r.. inscribed Moscou, and dated 1905 on the stretcher

oil on canvas

62 by 73.5cm., 24 1/4 by 29in.

The Malaya Dmitrovka, in the centre, off Tverskaya, is one of the oldest streets in Moscow, being mentioned in a Gramota of Ivan III in 1504. In Soviet times it was called Ulitsa Chekhova, after the writer, who early in his career worked at the "Zritel" publishing house at No.1, and later lived at No.29 from 1890-1892.

On the left of the picture is the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Putniki, built in 1652 after the earlier wooden church on the site was destroyed during the conflagration of 1648. Stone built, it is the only multi-turreted domed church in Moscow. It survived Napoleon in 1812 and Stalin and Kaganovich in the 1930's who had it closed down and ordered the execution of the Bishop Bartholomew for having turned the church into an oasis of spirituality. The church re-opened for worship on the 24^th August 1991.

The Strasnoi Monastery, the gates and church of which form the background of Bouchard's composition, was not so fortunate. Founded as a women's monastery by Tzar Michael Fedorovich in 1654 it burnt down in a fire in 1778. Catherine the Great had it reconstructed, and it was later ransacked by Napoleon's troops in 1812. Legend has it that the first church bells to sound after they left the city were from its bell tower. In 1935 the monastery was demolished during Stalin's reconstruction of Moscow and Tverskaya Street, to make way for the "Rossiya" cinema and the large square in front of it where the monument to Pushkin now stands.

Bouchard, known for his landscapes and orientalist works, travelled to Moscow at the beginning of the 20^th century and painted a number of views of Moscow. See, for example, Red Square in Winter, The Russian Sale, 14^th and 15^th December 1995, lot 184.