Fedor Ilych Baikov, 1818-1890

A gift from Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich to his brother Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich on 13 October 1844

Original canvas which has been strip lined. There is a layer of light surface dirt and discoloured varnish. There are some lines of craquelure in places throughout, mostly visible where the the pigment is darkest lower middle. Examination under ultraviolet light reveals an area of sweeping retouching lower middle right and some further spots to the sky (mostly top right) and some minor flecks elsewhere. Held in a gold painted moulded plaster frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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Fedor Baikov was already a favourite of Nicholas I's sons, the Grand Dukes Nikolai Nikolaevich and Mikhail Nikolaevich, by the time he attended the Academy of Arts as a part-time student. In 1846 he won the Silver Medal for a Battle Scene, and in 1862 was named an official 'Military Artist'. Baikov was also a landscape artist and, although he is less well known in this genre, his sensitivity to his surroundings shines through in his compositions.

Baikov lived in a society where the military was highly respected. The Russian Empire was at war for much of the nineteenth century: against Napoleon, the Ottomans and the Persians, in the Caucasus, as well as the Crimea. The artist chose to specialise in painting battle and military scenes, and, while the fashion was distinctly European, Baikov's obvious interest in and understanding of this milieu meant that he kept the favour of two Grand Dukes, whose direct experience in this area exceeded his. The artist's singular skill lies in combining the gritty demands of soldiers' lives with well-executed landscapes in such a way that the two complement each other.

The artist lived in St Petersburg and then Tbilisi, from where he was able to cover much of the later parts of the Caucasian War. Pictures from or inspired by this campaign were published in his well-known album of lithographs Caucasian Scenes of 1869. As a favourite of Nikolai Nikolaevich, Baikov's work is well represented in the State Russian Museum, where the Grand Duke's collection is housed, as well as in the Military-Historical Museum in St Petersburg, the North Ossetian State Gallery and various Tbilisi museums.

 

This painting was a gift from the 13-year old Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich to his younger brother Mikhail for his twelfth birthday in 1844, as the inscription and imperial label on the back of the painting bears witness. Indeed it could be a pendant to A Cossack and Three Soldiers by an Izba which was in Grand Duke Nikolai's collection, and is now in the State Russian Museum (fig.1).

The painting shows the relatively poor life of the ordinary soldier out of the campaigning season. Forced to forage for their own food, the two soldiers in this scene appear to have done something to arouse the interest of the man on horseback. The characters are artfully portrayed in a setting which is both realistic and bears the hallmark of Baikov's ability as a landscape artist.