BY THE IMPERIAL PORCELAIN FACTORY OR THE GARDNER FACTORY, CIRCA 1817

Details

A porcelain figure of Vodonoska [The Water Carrier]
by The Imperial Porcelain Factory or the Gardner Factory, circa 1817
Realistically modelled as a female water carrier, wearing an unglazed blue sarafan with gilt trimmings and a puce sash over a glazed rubashka with gilt ciselé kokoshnik and earrings and carrying a simulated wood yoke and buckets, the detachable circular gilt covers with ball finials, on circular ground, marked under base
9¾in. (24.6cm.) high

Provenance

Christie's London, The Provatoroff Collection, 20 November, 1997, lot 216

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

S.S. Pimenov (1784-1883) created the figure of Vodonoska [the water carrier] in 1817. His figural work was inspired by friendship and association with progressive artists of the time such as Venetsianov, Orlovskii and Kiprenskii and he moved from the classical to the naturalistic, producing figures of archetypally Russian character, with realistic colour, in contrast to the previous white fleshed figures. The present figure has a very subtle flesh colour. (B.N. Emme, Russian Decorative Porcelain, Moscow, 1950).

The impressed mark on this figure appears on porcelain with the mark of the Imperial Porcelain Factory (period of Nicholas I) and on other works with the contemporary mark of the Gardner Factory, but was not in regular use.

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