Beschreibung:

Vasilkovsky, Sergei 1854-1917 Russian/Ukrainian, The Abduction of Helen of Troy. 52 x 91 ins., (132 x 231 cms.), Oil on Canvas, Signed This marvellous picture has a fascinating history. After the Bolshevik revolution many Russians fled the country to China, Italy and other European countries. Most of them could only carry with them small items they valued highly, such as jewellery. The owner of this magnificent painting rolled up the canvas and fled from the Crimea to Constantinople, as it was then known. He must have thought the painting was especially valuable to have taken all the trouble to flee with it; even rolled up, it must have been quite bulky with all his other bits and pieces. At the time the British were in charge of the city. The vendor's grandfather, Joseph Bowman, was Marshall of HBM Supreme Court and bought the painting in 1919 from a Russian emigre aristocrat; it has remained in the family ever since. Joseph Bowman was quite a character, he had to lie about his age, being only sixteen, to join the Royal Marines seeing active service for the first part of his career, including the subjugation of the Boxer rebellion, where he gained a reputation for being fearless and intrepid. He became Constable at the British legation in Peking and was then moved to Turkey until the outbreak of World War I. After the war he returned to Constantinople, as it was then known, as Marshall of the Supreme Court, where he cut rather a dashing figure mixing with Russian royalty, especially the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrova, sister of Tsar Nicholas II, whom he regularly escorted. His high born connections would suggest all the more strongly he bought well when he acquired the 'Abduction of Helen of Troy'. After the British occupation ended, Joseph placed most of his possessions in a warehouse in Istanbul, as it had become. He returned to the UK leaving his son, who then had a job at the embassy, and possessions in Turkey. He returned to Istanbul in 1930 to collect everything, only to find much had been stolen, luckily not this painting. He decided to give the painting to his son, because he had married a Greek lady and the subject of the painting was Greek mythology. His son eventually left Turkey to move to the UK with his family and settled in Canterbury. In turn it was inherited by his son, the vendor. The title has been handed down through the family, so there is no reason to doubt it. There is a theory the picture could represent the Rape of Persephone, a goddess of vegetation, hence the green dress. However, the vendor's grandfather must have asked the Russian owner for the title, we believe the title is correct. Sergei Vaslikovsky, an important Russian/Ukrainian painter, spent part of his early years in Paris, where he was most influenced by the Barbizon painters. Professor Maria Salbstein, an expert on the Barbizon School, considers the painting is very much influenced by the French painters, so it must be an earlier work when he was in Paris. Later on he was particularly fond of Ukrainian landscapes and depictions of Cossacks. His style can vary considerably. We would like to thank Professor Maria Salbstein from Moscow University, who was born in Kiev, for her considerable help in cataloguing this painting.