Lot 111: ROBERT ROBERTOVICH BAKH (1859-1933), A RUSSIAN BRONZE OF A BISON FROM THE BYELOVEZHSKAYA FOREST

ROBERT ROBERTOVICH BAKH (1859-1933), A RUSSIAN BRONZE OF A BISON FROM THE BYELOVEZHSKAYA FOREST inscribed with signature and with Woerffel foundry mark height 16 in. 41 cm

This bronze magnificently depicts one of the many European bison (zubr) inhabiting the vast primeval forest of Byelovezhskaya (Bialowieza), one of the favorite hunting grounds of both the Polish kings and Russian emperors. It was one of the preferred holiday spots of Emperors Alexander III and Nicholas II; Nicholas and his family vacationed there in 1897, 1900, 1903, 1906, and 1912. Alexander III commissioned a new palace for the comfort of his family and retinue, but it was not finished until 1894. The design of this bronze was probably intended for the interior of the new palace, which was decorated with numerous pieces recalling successful hunts and the majestic animals roaming the park. While the palace and most of the outbuildings were destroyed during World War II, bison still roam the Byelovezhskaya forest. On the palace and the imperial hunts, see Svetlana Chestnykh and Karen Kettering, Belovezh. Tsarskaia rezidentsiia, Warsaw, 2009. For an 1897 cast iron version of this design now in the State Russian Museum, see L.P. Shaposhnikova, Skulptura XVIII-nachalo XX veka, Leningrad, 1988, p. 29, no. 91.