LOT 48
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LOT 48 48

19TH CENTURY RUSSIAN ARTIST, CIRCLE OF ISAAK LEVITAN (1860-1900)

Portrait of Sofia Kuvshinnikova

1886
oil on canvas
37 x 29 cm (14 1/2 x 11 3/8 in.)
signed and dated in Cyrillic lower left with Davydkovo 86 and artist`s initials N.B., possibly for Nikolai Nikolaevich Bazhin (1856-1917)



LOT NOTES

The following portrait, made in 1886 in Davidkovo, where many Peredvizhnik artists had country houses, was likely by a member of the Peredvizhnik movement - namely Nikolai Nikolaevich Bazhin (1856-1917), matching the N.B. initials and Bazhin`s handwriting. The woman pictured here is the artist Sofia Kuvshinnikova (1847-1907), who served as the prototype for the main character in Anton Chekhov`s play "The Grasshopper" and was, for several years, the mistress of well-known painter Isaac Levitan. Kuvshinnikova was the cause of such an intense dispute between Chekhov and Levitan, that, according to Anton Chekhov`s biographer and youngest brother Mikhail, the two nearly dueled over the matter.

Estimate: $2,000 – $3,000

Lot State: Sold

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