Works by Aivazovsky and Vasnetsov to be put up for auction in Moscow

In total, the catalog of future auctions, which will be held on March 16, contains more than 140 works by popular Russian artists in demand both on the domestic and foreign art market. Among them are Marc Chagall, Karl Bryullov, Boris Kustodiev, Ilya Repin, Nikolai Roerich, Vladimir Nemukhin and Ernst Neizvestny, Igor Vulokh and Zinaida Serebryakova. The total estimate of the collection of more than 140 lots will amount to 1.5 billion rubles.

The main lot is "Landscape with oxen" by Ivan Aivazovsky from 1867. The painter specialized mainly in marine subjects and battle scenes, so he has few "land" subjects — mostly they are scattered through the collections of the world's leading museums and private collections.

"Aivazovsky wrote the sea and light best, and turned to the land theme in the 1860s, partly because critics blamed him for monotony. In the work "Landscape with oxen", the artist does not change himself: the glare of the sun's rays, the rustic sunset turning pink in the distance, betray the hand of a master who was able to subtly convey the play of light on an oil canvas. The work, impressive in its plot and 1.5 m in size, will be presented at auction with an estimate of 100 million rubles," said collector, art historian and co—founder of the Moscow Auction House Sergey Podstanitsky.

In addition, the canvas "Christ in a crown of Thorns" by Petrov-Vodkin will be presented. He is considered one of the most expensive and conceptually complete Russian authors. Experts noted that his works combine symbolism and realism, while the image of the heroes of his paintings stylistically refers to icon painting, and the color palette refers to the avant—garde.

Dated from the 1900s, the oil masterpiece "Christ in the Crown of Thorns" is the first work by Petrov-Vodkin in the last five years to be publicly auctioned on the Russian art market. The estimate of the work is estimated at 40 million rubles.

"The rare canvas represents one of the artist's earliest and most unusual works. The period when Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin created "Christos in the Crown of Thorns" was characterized by his creative searches abroad, in Italy, North Africa, France… It was then that the artistic language of the master was formed, who would later give us The Bathing of the Red Horse and other monumental masterpieces," Podstanitsky said.

Another lot is Viktor Vasnetsov's rediscovered masterpiece "The Pilgrims", painted by the master approximately in the 1870s. The work was bought at Sotheby's in 2003 for $50,000. It was not signed, but the owner appreciated the professionalism of the author and took the purchase to the State Russian Museum for examination. Experts were able to attribute authorship based on the technological and stylistic features of the canvas. Its estimate is estimated at 150 million rubles.

Earlier, on December 16, 2024, the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Lyubimova announced that the painting "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan" by Ilya Repin after restoration href="https://iz.ru/1807954/2024-12-16/kartina-repina-ivan-groznyi-i-syn-ego-ivan-vernulas-v-tretiakovskuiu-galereiu " target="_blank">returned to permanent display The Tretyakov Gallery. The artwork was damaged in 2018.