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Lot Essay
The present vase demonstrates the technical virtuosity of the painter Fedor Tarachkov. Particularly gifted in the sphere of historical painting, Tarachkov was among a small number of artists at the Imperial Porcelain Factory assigned to paint the finest works produced by the factory at the middle of the nineteenth century. Beginning in 1844 as a student at the factory school, the artist eventually was awarded gold and silver medals for his work and, in 1864, became a master at the factory.
The young boy depicted on the present vase was painted after a Neapolitan portrait by Pimen Orlov, a Russian portrait and genre painter who lived in Italy from 1841 until 1861. The original painting was most probably in the Imperial Collections or another residence in or around St Petersburg.
In his history of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, Baron Wolf includes Orlov in his description of the common practice of reproducing paintings on porcelain: "In their choice of paintings a great amount of eclecticism is noticeable: Italian, French, Dutch and other painters, both old and contemporary, were copied indifferently. They did not restrict themselves to copying only foreign artists, but they also copied paintings by Russian painters such as Nehf, Orlov, Kapkov, Moeller, and others", (see N. B. von Wolf, The Imperial Porcelain Factory 1744-1904, St Petersburg, 2003, p. 212).
The young boy depicted on the present vase was painted after a Neapolitan portrait by Pimen Orlov, a Russian portrait and genre painter who lived in Italy from 1841 until 1861. The original painting was most probably in the Imperial Collections or another residence in or around St Petersburg.
In his history of the Imperial Porcelain Factory, Baron Wolf includes Orlov in his description of the common practice of reproducing paintings on porcelain: "In their choice of paintings a great amount of eclecticism is noticeable: Italian, French, Dutch and other painters, both old and contemporary, were copied indifferently. They did not restrict themselves to copying only foreign artists, but they also copied paintings by Russian painters such as Nehf, Orlov, Kapkov, Moeller, and others", (see N. B. von Wolf, The Imperial Porcelain Factory 1744-1904, St Petersburg, 2003, p. 212).