Old Believer Church-clocher de l'Assomption de la Vierge à Rogozhskaya Sloboda Moscow [Cтарообрядческий храм-колокольня Успения Богородицы в Рогожской слободе] Oil/cardboard. Signed in Cyrillic on reverse. [1913]. 14 x 10". Authenticity confirmed by New York Roerich Museum (Director of Museum Mr. Daniel Entin e-mail of 07.12.2004) and by the department "Roerich Inheritance" of The Moscow State Museum of the East (Senior Scientific Researcher D. Popov) 01.06.2013 - COA attached. In original Victorian painted and parcel gilt altar-piece frame with a head of a saint at the cresting and phoenixes at the sides (provenance for the frame: sale 6.18.03, Doyle NY, lot428.)
Mountain Lake. Pastel on paper. Signed low right. c 1915
Shadow of the Teacher. Charcoal, chalk and watercolor on paper laid on cardboard, initialed l.r. in Cyrillic, 6 ¼ x 9 7/8 inch. . Bears numbers 47 (33) and half-destroyed exhibition label on the back. This is a study for bigger painting “His Shadow”, 1932, 74,5x117,5, tempera, canvas, Russia, Moscow, Tretiakov Gallery, #518. Provenance: Roerich New York Museum (according to RM inventory list, it was ”Sold to Mrs. K. S. C. Dec 15, 1933 $100”). In original XIX century Russian tabernacle-style hand-carved gilded frame, with upper part mimicking Orthodox church cupola, plain sloping predella imitating the church porch and flanking Russian church style pilasters
Pines in Karelia. Oil on paper, signed low right in Cyrillic and dated 1901, 16x12 inches. Provenance: Collection Armand Daillot, Paris ( bears stamp on reverse). Listed as “Pines” pp 90, 118 in “Roerich N.K.” Text by S. Ernst. St-Petersburg, St. Eugeni, 1918, p.113 Exhibited: “A Time to Gather… Russian Art From Foreign Private collections”, State Russian Museum, Saint-Petersburg, February-June 2008, Moscow - Exhibition Center "Tsaritsyno", June-July 2008, Palace Editions,2008, illustrated in the catalog p. 121 ill 77; illustrated in Русское Искусство magazine Moscow, 2015 v4 p 89.
Authenticity confirmed by Климов Павел Юрьевич - ведущий научный сотрудник музея отдела живописи второй половины 19 – нач. 21 вв. who wrote:
[“Karelia, with its unique nature and individual pictiresqueness, attracted Roerich. He saw something primitive and severe in its cliffs and pine forests, and that made the artist use simple and modest artistic techniques. This landscape dates back to the “boundary” period of Roerich’s life, when he trued to find his own unique style, developing from his teacher Arkhip Kuindzhi’s manner. He spent the summer of 1907 in Finland with his family. There he made not only symbolic compositions, bur sketches as well. In this picture, the composition and painting techniques of which are in naturalistic style, Roerich seems more to fix the visible qualities of nature, rather then trying to create some specific artistic effect.”]
In original hand carved gilded French tabernacle frame end of XIX century
CLOUDS. Pastel and tempera on board, signed with monogram and dated 1919 low right; numbered #72 in Roerich’s handwriting on the back; 21 x26 inches. In the blackened wooden frame evidently selected by the artist himself with title label on it. Exhibited: ВЫСТАВКА ГРУППЫ РУССКИХ ХУДОЖНИКОВ, ДЕЙСТВИТЕЛЬНЫХ ЧЛЕНОВ И УЧАСТНИКОВ «МИРА ИСКУССТВА». Париж, Осенний салон. 1 ноября – 20 декабря 1921 г. Salon d’Automne. Section: Groupe des Artistes russes, membres et exposants de la Société «Mir Iskousstva». Paris, 1922 #72 of the catalog - see photo below of the exhibition room with our painting shown on the wall up left. Authenticity confirmed by New York Roerich Museum (Senior Researcher Gvido Trepsa 07.12.2012) and by the department "Roerich Inheritance" of The Moscow State Museum of the East (Senior Scientific Researcher D. Popov) 01.06.2013 - see COA attached.
The Monastery Alexander Newsky in Suzdal. Oil on wood. 31 x 40cm. Framed in original frame evidently selected by the artist.
Verso: Several old adhesive labels on the panel:
- Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis 1904 (#420 in the catalog)
- Brandeis University Art Collection, Waltham, Massachusetts with the inventory no. 1971.692 R
- U.S. customs note.
Mr. Gvido Trepsa of the Roerich Museum in New York has been presented a photo of this painting in November 2014 and he confirmed the attribution to Roerich via e-mail.
About seventy of the architecture studies Roerich made while travelling Russia around 1903 were afterwards exhibited in St. Louis, Missouri. The present work is listed under catalogue number 420 and it has been acquired by the New York Roerich Museum together with six more "Studies from Old Russia" in 1931. Since 1935 the work was in private ownership and subsequently it was in several American museums as a loan. Amongst others it was exhibited in the Brandeis University Collection, Waltham, Massachusetts in 1971.
Provenance: Van Ham auction, Cologne, sale 15.05.2015 lot 789
