Klassiskt & Asiatiskt
Till katalogen
To be sold at Uppsala Auktionskammare’s Important Sale: Classic & Asian 9-11 December 2020
Lot 521. Nikolay Yegorovich Sverchkov (Russia 1817‑1898). Riding Cossack. Signed in Cyrillic N. Sverchkov. Oil on canvas, 141 x 104 cm.
600.000 – 800.000 SEK
€ 59.000 – 78.000
A Private Collection.
Nikolay Yegorovich Sverchkov (1817–1898) was born St. Petersburg into the family of a groom and coachman who served at the Imperial court. The young Nikolay would often help his father at work and thus came to be well acquainted with horses. He soon began drawing both horses and other animals. He showed a great talent in this and he got to study with the battle-scene painter A. Sauerweid.
Having graduated from Saint Peter’s School in 1833, Sverchkov started working at the Ministry of Interior, but kept on painting in his spare time. From the mid 1840’s he exhibited some of his works at the Academy of Arts, he was awarded the title ”Free artist” and was able to quit his work at the ministry. In 1855 he was awarded the title professor at the Academy, and had until then become well known, especially for his equestrian portraits, his hunting scenes, his troikas and other genre motives. In the early 1860’s he also started to exhibit in the Paris salons, where he received much appraise, and his work ”Returning from the bear hunt” was acquired by Napoleon III. He was also awarded the Légion d’honneur.
Back in Russia he received a commission from tsar Alexander II for a large painting on the subject ”The departure of tsar Aleksey Mikhailovich for inspecting the troops in 1664”, which lead to more commissions from the Imperial Court, mostly equestrian portraits of the Emperor and his family. During his life, he is said to have produced about 350 oil paintings and more than a thousand drawings.