Nikolai Bogdanov-Belsky: Country Boys (1916)

Bogdanov-Belsky’s pre-revolutionary works include some of his most striking canvases, the scale alone often an indication of his artistic confidence. The present lot is an exceptional example of the qualities that mark out these rare, early paintings – tight brushwork, vivid blues and greens, and an impact that would grow gradually more diffuse with the looser strokes and muted palette that appear at times in his later works. Source: Sotheby’s.

In the present lot there is an unmistakable sense of resolve in the boys’ expressions. Their tightly-pursed lips and concentration ground the pair to a pre-Revolutionary epoch: alert in the face of uncertainty rather than the glazed look of Soviet youth.  

Source: Sotheby’s.