Lot Essay
Currants were popular motifs for Fedor Tolstoi: after presenting a similar work to Empress Elisabeth Alekseevna, wife of Emperor Alexander I, the artist was presented with a diamond ring and thereafter was commissioned to repeat the composition whenever the Empress required a gift for a member of the Imperial family or an important member of the court. According to his daughter, M. F. Kamenskaia, Tolstoi claimed that his '…whole family was fed by a single currant'. An earlier version of the present lot, dated 1818, is in the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.