Alexei Petrovich Bogoliubov

Original canvas, which is torn beyond the upper tacking edge and not visible from the front, and another small tear in the lower left corner, also not visible from the front. There is a layer of light surface dirt, some light abrasion to the edges and very minor areas of associated paintloss. There are very fine lines of craquelure in places throughout and a small raised line of craquelure to the centre of the sky. The paint surfaces is thin in palces to the sky and there are minor flecks of paintloss to the sky throughout. UV light reveals retouching across the upper edge of the canvas. Speewing retouching to the top right hand corner and right edge. There is a vertical line of retouching approximately 14cm long to the sky in the right half of the painting; there is retouching to the left hand edge and a few minor spots elsewhere.Held in a gold painted wooden frame with some losses to the moulding.
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13 October 1893.  The Russian Mediterranean squadron sailed into the port of Toulon under the flag of Rear Admiral Fedor Avelan to fanfare and ceremony reported across the globe. The French military squadron had visited the Russian base at Kronstadt two years previously, and this reciprocal event in Toulon marked a key moment in the rapprochement between the two countries, helping to forge the vital Franco-Russian alliance that was under negotiation at the time. Since his ascension to the throne, Alexander III had been determined to strengthen the Russian fleet and doubled its annual allocation to over 50 million roubles, which in terms of sheer combat power allowed Russia to close the gap with the British and French navies by the turn of the century.

Over 300,000 people flocked to Toulon to attend the festivities and glimpse the Russian sailors, thousands sleeping in the city's parks or sailing into the harbour in small launches and yachts to circle the ironclads.  Grand balls, luncheons, speeches and processions were held for the Russian officers in both Toulon and Paris; a commemorative medal was struck (fig.4) and Avelan was presented with numerous formal gifts including a beautiful leather-bound book Le livre d'or produced by artisans from Lorraine and an inlaid table by Emile Gallé (both in The State Hermitage Museum).

According to contemporary newspaper reports, cries of 'Vive la Russie! Vive le Czar!' filled the air and Russian flags, prints, trinkets and souvenirs filled the capital's streets.  As Tolstoy drily noted: 'It happened that not only the men who ate, drank, and talked, but even those who were not present, hearing and reading of it in newspapers - all these millions of Russians and Frenchmen - suddenly imagined that they were somehow particularly in love with one another.  All the French loved all the Russians, and all the Russians loved all the French' (L.Tolstoy, 'On Patriotism', 1894).

By 1893 Alexei Bogoliubov was a central figure in Franco-Russian cultural relations having lived in France for over 25 years and founded an association with Turgenev to actively promote Russian painters. It was no surprise therefore, that it was Bogoliubov whom the Tsar chose to be the official painter of the ceremonies in Toulon, accompanied by two of his pupils, Mikhail Tkachenko and Nikolai Gritsenko.

The evident sense of excitement is captured in his small bright oil sketches (fig.5), but only in his larger canvases does one appreciate the true scale of pageantry. The present lot is one of three large paintings on the theme: the second is in The Naval Museum, St Peterburg and the third, fully-worked version (fig.2) was subsequently presented by Tsar Nicholas II to Le Cercle National des Armées in Paris, for which the artist was awarded the Croix de Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government shortly before his death.

The scale of the present work is impressive, but much of its charm lies in the colourful details of the fluttering pennants and sails, the cheering multitudes, aligned oars and the carefully painted prows, picked out against the sheen of the reflected sun. The figure at the easel is presumably the artist himself (fig.6); the photographer to his left may be Marius Bar, a famous photographer from Toulon who is known to have taken pictures of the proceedings (fig.1).  The relationship between the emerging impressionist art movement and the new field of photography in the second half of the 19^th century is a complex and intriguing one. In Bogoliubov's case, it is not unreasonable to suggest that the presence of cameras to document the events liberated him from the constraints of photographic realism and allowed him to explore a more spontaneous, semi-impressionistic style.  

Buoyant, rough and windswept, the present lot is a magnificent pictorial representation of the strange and infectious excitement described by Tolstoy, which 'grew and grew like a ball of rolling wet snow, and finally reached such dimensions that not only the persons present, not only predisposed and weak-nerved, but even strong, normal men fell prey to the general mood and became abnormally affected. I remember how I, absent-mindedly reading one of these description of the solemnity of the reception of the sailors, suddenly felt a feeling akin to meekness of spirit, even a readiness for tears... so that I had to make an effort to overcome this feeling' (L.Tolstoy, idem).