In 1910, the Konchalovsky family moved into apartment 24 of Moscow’s Bolshaya Sadovaya Street 10, an address that Mikhail Bulgakov would also occupy and immortalise as the setting for his most famous novel The Master and Margarita. Owned by the tobacco mogul Ilya Pigit, the luxurious Russian Art Nouveau building housed the studios of several artists – just below Konchalovsky’s studio was that of theatre designer Georgy Yakulov, which would become the birthplace of the group they founded together with Aristarkh Lentulov, the Jack of Diamonds.

As the Jack of Diamonds group drew increasing criticism from the state, Konchalovsky started to paint more realist winter views of Moscow, one of his favourite themes of the late 1920s and 1930s, illustrating the uniqueness, old charm and everyday life of his beloved and ever-changing neighbourhood and wider city. With all the changes since undergone by Moscow's Garden Ring, the present lot is not only a prime example of Konchalovsky’s peaceful cityscapes of the period, with its distinctive but subtle palette, but also a testament to a bygone era.