Lot number 2348 - Auction 142
MONUMENTALE SIGNIERTE IKONE MIT DER HEILIGEN ALEXANDRA AUS EINER KIRCHEN-IKONOSTASE

A MONUMENTAL SIGNED ICON SHOWING ST. ALEXANDRA FROM A CHURCH ICONOSTASIS Russian, St. Petersburg, Vassiliy Vassilevitch Vassilev (1829-1894), circa 1860 Oil on wood panel. Finely executed against a golden background. The background with etched tracery design. On the reverse signed 'V. Vassilev St. Petersburg' in Cyrillic. The edges minimally chipped. 129.5 x 59.2 cm. The artist was born in the village of Ivashkovo in the Kostroma province. At the age of ten, he was brought to St. Petersburg and trained in an icon-painting workshop. From 1847 to 1851, he was a free student at the Imperial Academy of Arts. In 1858, he was awarded the title of Academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts for his "painting in the Byzantine style." Vasilyev worked on murals and icons for churches in Moscow and St. Petersburg, as well as commissions for Orthodox churches in Poland, Italy, and France. His religious paintings combined the realism of academic art with the strictness of Byzantine iconography. He painted icons for churches in St. Petersburg and its surroundings, as well as for Orthodox churches in Nice, Warsaw, and Florence. His 1858 icon of Saint Alexandra is housed in the State Tretyakov Gallery.