Evgraf Semenovich Sorokin

Private European collection from the late 19th century
Thence by decent to the previous owner

Reka Vremen: Kniga Istorii i kultury, book 3
Trudy. Tvoreniya. Khudozhestva: Moscow 1995, p.32

Original canvas. There is a layer of light surface dirt and fine lines of craquelure throughout. There are some light abrasions to the upper edge and a few minor flecks of paint loss. UV light reveals an uneven layer of discoloured varnish and some retouching to the lower section of the skirt and in small areas elsewhere. Held in an ornate gold painted plaster frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted at the height of Sorokin's career Laughing Italian Girl is a recently discovered masterwork whose fate has long remained unknown. First recorded in the correspondence of fellow Academician, Mikhail Scotti, with the sculptor Nikolai Ramazanov in May 1858,  the picture of "the laughing Italian girl who offers a bunch of grapes", was intended "I believe for Naryshkin" (Reka Vremen: Kniga Istorii i kultury, book 3; Trudy. Tvoreniya. Khudozhestva: Moscow 1995, p.32).

Sorokin studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts and in 1850 he began his travels overseas as a scholar of the Academy, visiting Germany, Belgium and France. From 1851-1853 Sorokin lived and worked in Madrid, Toledo and Granada, where he copied the work of Jusepe de Ribera and, in March 1854, he arrived in Rome. In January 1856, Sorokin succeeded in extending his stay in Italy for another two years, where he painted a number of idyllic genre scenes which capture the carefree and natural beauty of Italian country life.

When compared with The Meeting from 1858 in the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery, the stylistic similarities are evident (fig.1). Sorokin was fascinated by the idea of trying to convey the heat of the midday sun and therefore draws the viewer's attention to the effects of dappled sunlight filtered through the vine leaves. Each detail of the girl's attire is delicately depicted, from the folds of the material to the characteristic pattern on her sash.

By the mid 1850's, Sorokin's talent had come to the attention of patrons and artists alike. In his 1854-5 report to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Prince Volkonsky, guardian of Russian artists studying in Rome, described Sorokin's compositions as 'marvellous exemplars of correct draughtsmanship and painting" (A.A.Pogodin "Notes" by Prince G.P.Volkonsky. Scholars of the St Petersburg Academy of Arts in Rome 1854-1855; Russkoe Iskusstvo novogo vremeni: Research and Materials: Collected Articles, Moscow 2006, No.8, p.190). In the spring of 1858, several of Sorokin's paintings were shown in Rome as part of an exhibition for Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, which may have also included the offered lot.

We are grateful to Dr. Ludmila Markina, head of the Department of Russian Painting, eighteenth to first half nineteenth century art at the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, for providing additional cataloguing information.