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220 - 220. * Ivan Fomich Khrutsky (Ulla 1810-1885 Zakharnich)

Estimate €25,000 - €30,000

Description

220. * Ivan Fomich Khrutsky (Ulla 1810-1885 Zakharnich) Champignons signed in Cyrillic (lower right) oil on canvas 59,5 x 90cm (23 7/16 x 35 7/16in). Provenance Private Collection, US As a master of still life and an academician of the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg, Khrutsky consistently adhered to the artistic traditions of the old European masters. His works closely resemble the still-life paintings of the Dutch artists of the 17th century. In Khrutsky's still lifes, the genre traditions adopted from European models are preserved, but they are reinterpreted in accordance with the painter's contemporary ideas about the meaning of an artistic image. Motifs placed in a modern context are almost completely deprived of symbolic meaning. Exotic fruits - lemons, grapes, peaches appear alongside fruits familiar to residents of central Russia such as apples, currants, cherries, and strawberries. In his bouquets, roses and carnations do not dominate; instead, garden peonies prevail. In the foreground of Khrutsky's paintings one can often see a characteristic element of the traditional Dutch 'luxurious breakfast' still life: a lemon with its peel cut into a spiral. Next to it appear rough, simple vegetables. The combination of everyday reality with the classical harmony of pictorial imagery is particularly expressive in still lives where, instead of delicate flowers and juicy fruits, simple kitchen utensils, vegetables, and mushrooms 'pose' as the main subjects. The presented painting Still Life with Mushrooms was created in the early 1850s. Several similar works exist, since the artist preferred the genre of still life to the more common and 'prestigious' directions of the time - landscape and historical painting. In Still Life with Mushrooms, Ivan Khrutsky adopted the technical foundation of 17th-century Dutch painting while infusing it with a distinctly different emotional tone. While Western European still lives were often imbued with a sense of satiation and the lifelessness associated with it, Khrutsky's work appears abundant, lively, and optimistic. The stability of the baskets is juxtaposed with the apparent messiness of the various forest mushrooms, creating a composition that is both dynamic and balanced. The warm colour scheme and dark background also refer to the traditions of Western European still-life painting.

About the sale Old Master and 19th Century Paintings

Auction location

Auction time 11/04/2026 at 1:00 PM

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