Alexander Nikolaevich Benois, 1870-1960

The collection of the Artist;
Sergei Diaghilev;
Oluf Razmusen (1900-1980);
Private Collection, Europe

St. Petersburg, Moscow, Union of Russian Artists, 16 and 25 January 1905

Mir Iskusstva, No.1, 1904, p.31 (illustrated)
A. Pushkin, The Bronze Horseman: A Petersburg Tale, Munich: Orhis, 1922

The picture has been cleaned, but there is some minor mount staining still visible along the edges. There are minor scuffings to the edges. The head of the figure has been pasted on by the artist on a separate piece of paper.
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St Petersburg, particularly Alexander Pushkin's Petersburg, captivated Alexander Benois throughout his life and his drawings for Pushkin's works have been hugely influential in the sphere of Russian book illustration. Those for The Bronze Horseman are probably the best known and most important.

In 1903 the 'Circle for Lovers of Russian Fine Publications' commissioned Benois to illustrate a Russian literary classic of his choice. Benois chose Pushkin's The Bronze Horseman without a second thought. Although the publication did not go ahead, the illustrations were acquired by Sergei Diaghilev, who printed them in his World of Art magazine to wide acclaim. 'Your drawings are so good I can barely come to my senses from delight!', wrote Igor Grabar. The Bronze Horseman with Benois' original illustrations from 1903 was finally published in Munich in 1922.