Red and white currants

Details

Fedor Petrovich Tolstoi (1783-1873)
Red and white currants
signed and dated 'Comte Théodore de Tolstöy 1834.' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour, heightened with white, on brown paper
7 1/8 x 9 5/8 in. (18 x 21.9 cm.)

Special notice

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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.

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