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Lot Essay
Princess Maria Tenisheva (1867-1928), was a famous artist, collector and important patron of the arts in Russia. She studied at the Central School for Technical Drawing under Tsionglinsky and Repin and at the Académie Julian in Paris. In 1894, she founded her own painting and drawing studio, headed by Repin and housed in the family mansion in St Petersburg.
Tenisheva is perhaps best remembered for founding the artistic settlement on her estate of Talashkino, near Smolensk, which was to become one of the most important artistic centres of Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Talashkino, initially under the guidance of the artist, architect, and designer Malyutin (1859-1937), fostered the study and revival of Russian applied and decorative arts and the emerging Neo-Russian style, much in the same way as Abramtsevo, located outside of Moscow. The workshops were frequented by Russia's best and brightest artists, including Vrubel', Roerich, Alexander and Albert Benois, Nesterov, Korovin, Repin, and Troubetzkoy.
The present boxes are an embodiment of the artistic sensibilities of Tenisheva and Talashkino. They belong to an unusual and highly original series of seven vari-coloured enameled cast bronze animal figures created by Tenisheva in 1908 in a Paris workshop. The figures in the series are entitled Pigeon, Fish (the present lots), Cat, Pig, Owl, Rooster and Swan. Six were designed as boxes and one (Swan) as a paperweight and each figure is marked with the initials MT and a number. The entire series was exhibited in Paris and Prague in 1909 and four figures were shown in Brussels two years later. The figures were well-received by the public, so much so that the artist Nikolai Roerich published an article in the Russian art press, entitled Enchanted Animals (enamels of Princess M.K. Tenisheva), dedicated to the work of Tenisheva and these animal figures in particular (J. Oser, op cit, pp. 86-92).
Tenisheva is perhaps best remembered for founding the artistic settlement on her estate of Talashkino, near Smolensk, which was to become one of the most important artistic centres of Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Talashkino, initially under the guidance of the artist, architect, and designer Malyutin (1859-1937), fostered the study and revival of Russian applied and decorative arts and the emerging Neo-Russian style, much in the same way as Abramtsevo, located outside of Moscow. The workshops were frequented by Russia's best and brightest artists, including Vrubel', Roerich, Alexander and Albert Benois, Nesterov, Korovin, Repin, and Troubetzkoy.
The present boxes are an embodiment of the artistic sensibilities of Tenisheva and Talashkino. They belong to an unusual and highly original series of seven vari-coloured enameled cast bronze animal figures created by Tenisheva in 1908 in a Paris workshop. The figures in the series are entitled Pigeon, Fish (the present lots), Cat, Pig, Owl, Rooster and Swan. Six were designed as boxes and one (Swan) as a paperweight and each figure is marked with the initials MT and a number. The entire series was exhibited in Paris and Prague in 1909 and four figures were shown in Brussels two years later. The figures were well-received by the public, so much so that the artist Nikolai Roerich published an article in the Russian art press, entitled Enchanted Animals (enamels of Princess M.K. Tenisheva), dedicated to the work of Tenisheva and these animal figures in particular (J. Oser, op cit, pp. 86-92).