Vasily Vasilievich Vereshchagin

The artist

American Art Galleries, New York, Vassili Verestchagin Collection To Be Sold By Auction, 18 November 1891, lot 66

Acquired at the above sale by J. M. Bonham for $315

Serge Alexander Korff (1906-1989)

Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibition catalogue, Exhibition of the Works of Vassili Verestchagin. Illustrative Descriptive Catalogue, New York, 1888, p.63, no. 98 listed

New York, American Art Galleries, Exhibition of the Works of Vassili Verestchagin, 1888, no. 98 (travelling exhibition, visiting the Chicago Art Institute, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston et al.)

Located on the banks of the Moskva in the very heart of Moscow, the Kremlin has been to varying degree the centre of political power in Russia for centuries. While a fortified town had existed on the site earlier, the term Kremlin, referring to fortified complexes, only started to appear in the 14^th century. The surviving brick walls and towers date from the late 15^th and early 16^th centuries, when Ivan the Great, Grand Prince of Moscow, hired Italian architects to expand the Kremlin, commissioning several churches as well as the Palace of the Facets. Building continued under his successors, notably under Ivan the Terrible, who expanded the influence of Moscow and was eventually crowned Tsar of all Russia, making the Kremlin the residence of the Russian monarch. The Kremlin and Moscow as a whole lost in importance when Peter the Great moved the capital to Saint Petersburg, although coronations continued to take place at the Kremlin. Following the Russian Revolution, the Kremlin became the seat of the Soviet Government, and now serves as the seat of the President of the Russian Federation.

The present work was part of the large Vereshchagin touring exhibition organized by the American Art Association. Already renowned internationally for his monumental battle paintings, the artist arrived in New York in 1888, followed by a shipment of 59 enormous cases of paintings and objects. The exhibition catalogue included a drawing of the Kremlin with the names of the various buildings in order to explain this vast complex of fortifications, palaces, cathedrals and churches to the American public. Vereshchagin described the Moscow Kremlin as ‘one of the most curious sights in existence. I do not know any other city in the world that would present more original and even more striking views.’ In the present example, the artist depicted it from across the Moskva, with the onion domes of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, located outside the Kremlin Walls in Red Square, visible on the far right.

While the exhibition was a success with the public – the Chicago leg at the Art Institute of Chicago alone attracted over 100,000 visitors – the auction of the collection which took place in New York in November 1891 after the exhibition had travelled for three years, was a commercial failure. The present work sold for $315, and was later acquired by Serge Alexander Korff, the renowned American physicist of Russian descent, in whose family it has remained until now.