Pavel Osipovich Kovalevsky

Structural Condition The canvas is unlined and is providing a secure structural support. There is a horizontal stretcher-bar line running parallel and just beneath the upper horizontal framing edge which is almost inevitable with an unlined canvas but it is always very encouraging to find the canvas in it's original unlined state. There are four small patches on the reverse. Three of these are in the lower left and one in the lower right, as viewed from the reverse. Paint surface The paint surface has a reasonably even varnish layer and inspection under ultra-violet light shows scattered retouchings the most significant of which are: 1) along the upper and lower framing edges, 2) an area in the bushes in the lower left of the composition which corresponds to the patch on the reverse, 3) retouchings on and around the horse in the lower right of the composition and small retouchings in this corner corresponding to the other three patches. There are other small scattered retouchings. The varnish layer would appear to be slightly discoloured. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition and while no further work is required for reasons of conservation, the painting should respond well to cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
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The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 provided inspiration for a number of Russian artists including Alexei Bogoliubov and Ivan Aivazovsky, some of whom accompanied the armies on the campaign, and were commissioned to record events.  Pavel Kovalevsky attached himself to the 12^th Army to document the campaign on the Danube for Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, second son of tsar Alexander II.   

A gold medal from the Academy of Arts for Pursuit of the Turkish foragers by Cossacks near Kars and First day of the Battle of Leipzig 1813 had already proved Kovalevsky's talent for portraying military scenes.  Morning in the village of Brestovets belongs to a series of compositions depicting the army's Eastern Detachment under the command of the tsarevich Alexander Alexandrovich – the future tsar Alexander III - campaigning in Northern Bulgaria. Painted ten years after his graduation from the Academy of Arts , and the same year he was appointed as a Professor of Painting, it shows a troop of His Imperial Majesty's Lifeguards Uhlan Regiment as they go about their morning routine. The mist still hangs above the village in the background, and one of the troopers is barely awake, but the others have saddled their mounts already, and the troop officer has come out to inspect them.    Its everyday atmosphere is similar to that of Episode from Bulgarian war, now in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, which also depicts Brestovets (fig.1).  While perhaps less heroic in subject than his other compositions from the Russo-Turkish War, the offered work combines Kovalevsky's consummate mastery in portraying soldiers, animals and military detail, with the curious calm that makes up the majority of a campaign.