A SOVIET PORCELAIN DISH, 'THE COMMISSAR, URITSKII SQUARE'

Details

A SOVIET PORCELAIN DISH, 'THE COMMISSAR, URITSKII SQUARE'

WITH UNDERGLAZE MARK OF THE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY (PERIOD OF ALEXANDER III) AND LATER BLUE OVERGLAZE STATE PORCELAIN FACTORY MARK, DATED 1921, WITH THE MONOGRAM OF BARBARA RUKAVICHNIKOVA

Painted with a commissar wearing brown battle-dress, blue and black trousers tucked into boots, holding a blue file, standing before the Petrograd Palace Square, the Borders paited with gold ciselé inscription 'Petrograd Uritskii Square,' after a design by Aleksandra Shchekotikhina-Pototskaia, marked on the base
12in. (30.5cm.) diam.

Literature

E. Gollerbakh, M. Farmakovskii, Russian Artistic Porcelain, (Leningrad, 1924) illus. opp. p. 66
B. Alekseev, Soviet Artistic Porcelain, (Moscow, 1962), p. 61
L. Andreeva, Soviet Porcelain, (Moscow, 1975), illus. p. 167
Oxford, Museum of Modern Art, Art into Production, (1984), no. 213, dish no. 221
Christie's 29 October, 1985, lot 239; for similar plates

Lot Essay

Aleksandra Shchekotikhina-Pototskaia is known particularly for her compositions on porcelain for the State Porcelain Factory which she joined at the end of 1918. From 1908-1915 she studied at the Drawing School of the Association for the Encouragement of the Arts in St. Petersburg under N. Rerikh and I. Biblin. Between 1912 and 1920, she designed sets and theatrical costumes for Diaghilev's 1913 production of Stravinski's Rite of Spring and Borodin's opera Prince Igor. It was in 1920-1921 that she created her most famous compositions on porcelain: the Bellringer and the Commissar.

Whilst transmitting through her work the spirit of the revolutionary era, Shchekotikhina-Pototskaia still retained a feel for the traditions of the old, Imperial Russia. Typical of her work is the Commissar - in the foreground is the new Soviet official, full of energy and importance, but the background is dominated by the Winter Palace and the Alexander Column, symbols of the old epoch.

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