NIKOLAI EGOROVICH SVERCHKOV | A Fiery Steed

The present lot is signed in Latin because it dates to the three year period Sverchov spent in France (1861-1864), renting a studio at 9 rue Brochart-de-Saron. This was an extremely productive and successful period for the artist; in 1863 the Emperor Napoleon III purchased Return from the Bear Hunt from the artist in person.

Sverchkov was particularly pleased with the successful composition of A Fiery Steed and repeated it several times. A later version, dated 1864, is now in the collection of the Museum of the Horse at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in Moscow (fig.1).