TKACHENKO, MIKHAIL (1860–1916) Lot n° 5

Meeting of Tsar Nicolas II and the President of the French Republic Armand Fallieres in Cherbourg Harbour on 31 July 1909, signed and dated 1910. Oil on canvas, 139 by 228 cm.   Provenance: A gift from Tsar Nicholas II to President Fallières c. 1911. Important private collection, Europe. Authenticity of the work has been confirmed by the expert V. Petrov. Literature: Novoe vremia, No. 1273, 27 August 1911, No. 10, illustrated and listed. Mikhail Stepanovich Tkachenko. 1860–1916, Kiev, Korners, 2010, p. 134, illustrated in a published cutting from the 1911 newspaper Novoe vremia. Mikhail Tkachenko painted the present lot in 1910. Entitled Meeting of Tsar Nicolas II and the President of the French Republic Armand Fallières in Cherbourg Harbour on 31 July 1909, it was commissioned by Nicholas II as one of several large marine pieces intended to be important gifts from the government. The Ukrainian painter Mikhail Tkachenko had a talent that was highly prized by the imperial court under both Alexander III and Nicholas II. After graduating from the Imperial Academy of Arts, Tkachenko arrived in Paris in 1888. His studies at Cormon’s Academy opened the artist up to a new understanding of the challenges of art and acquainted him with the best painters of their day. Later he would come to know Nikolai Gritsenko and Alexei Bogoliubov, who were retained by the Russian Naval General Staff as its painters in France. It was thanks to the involvement of these artists that, in 1893, Tkachenko found himself in Cherbourg and Toulon for the first time, joining them to gather material on the visit of Russian ships to France. One outcome of this trip was the painting Russian Squadron in Toulon, a triumph for which Tkachenko was awarded the Legion d’honneur. From then on Tkachenko was considered one of the best marine artists in Europe and in 1900 this led to his appointment as Artist