Dali House

A final, intriguing piece from the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12: “The Painter” by Pavel Dmitrievich Shmarov (1874-1955). The oil was done in 1940 and was expected to bring between £10,000 and £15,000.

I’d say it’s a fair stab at a Monet with a little Degas drama in the lighting, but there’s more. The artist in the woods seems to be returning our gaze, and what are we doing?

* Getting a load of his models — four of them ready to go, like an assembly line?

* Wondering if we should call the cops?

* Or painting him and his harem?

It’s all so delightfully sordid.

Both the pious and and the profane had a look in at the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12.

Above, what at first glance seems to be dinnerware with a Muslim motif is in fact a piece of Soviet propaganda from the 1920s, a plate made by the Higher State Art-Technical Studios, known as VkhUTEMAS.

The figure from the Caucasus kneels before a hammer and sickle, surrounded by an Arabic transliteration of the Russian slogan “Workers of the World United” and images of labourers and a factory.

Sotheby’s, which was counting on between £5,000 and £7,000 for the piece, explained that VkhUTEMAS was similar to the German Bauhaus in intent and scope, merging traditional craftsmanship with modern technology.

Then there was the jolly watercolour “Bacchante” of Count Mihaly von Zichy (1827-1906), below, and you really have to wonder about the models. If they had to hold that pose for a long time, didn’t she get itchy? Someone liked the painting enough to pay £15,000 for it.

Another piece from the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12, and it’s more “Sots art”, the quasi-Soviet version of pop art. This is the 1991 silkscreen “Gorby”, offered for £4,000 to £6,000, by Alexander Kosolapov, who’s about 65 years old now.

Hard to say whether Gorbachev’s lipstick and eyeliner are meant to denigrate his dismantling of the Soviet Union or not, but it’s still as much a nod to stoic Kremlin portraits as it is to Warhol.

How would you like to wake up every morning to Nikolai Konstantinovich Kalmakov’s “The Wife of Satan”?

On the other hand, Kalmakov’s “The Head of Christ” from 1922, not part of the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12.

Kalmakov (1873-1955) was a stand-out at the sales this year, and his demon spouse from 1919 was a jaw-dropper, but the higher bidding and the fondest gazes were reserved for “The Death of Adonis” from 1924, below, which was expected to bring between £40,000 and £60,000, a third more than Mrs Satan.

See the rest.

Another piece from the Sotheby’s auctions of Russian art on June 10 and 12: Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev’s “In the Cafe de la Rotonde”, which was expected to bring between £40,000 and £60,000.

I think it’s a lovely, pensive painting by Yakovlev (also referred to as Iacovleff, 1887-1938), born and trained in St Petersburg, widely travelled, including to Mongolia, Japan and China. He taught architecture in his hometown, by then renamed Petrograd, and in Boston too, finally settling in Paris in 1920. See the rest.