Mikhail Stepanovich TKATCHENKO (Kharkiv 1860 -... Lot n° 8

Arrival of the Russian Imperial Squadron in the port of Toulon, October 13, 1893 Realized in 1893 Oil on canvas 42 x 79 cm Signed and dated lower left "M.Tkatchenko 1893 (old restoration on the right) Wilfried Zeisler in his book Figures of the Franco-Russian alliance: marine paintings around 1900 tells the story of the arrival of the Russian imperial squadron in the port of Toulon on October 13, 1893 and the representation of this event by Russian and French painters. "The draft, then the development of the Franco-Russian alliance at the end of the nineteenth century was the result of an ancient tradition of exchanges between France and Russia ... In 1893, the Russian squadron of the Mediterranean Sea, led by Avellan (1839-1916), entered the harbor of Toulon. The first official act of the alliance took place: the military convention. Among the artists who treated the alliance in 1893, we find the official Russian marine painters, Bogoliubov and his pupils Gritsenko and Tkatchenko. [...] Tkatchenko, unlike Bogoliubov and Gritsenko, did not start his career as a military man in the Navy. After training in Kharkov, he went to the St. Petersburg Academy in 1879, where he was taught by the famous artists P. P. Chistiakov. M. K. Klodt and V. D. Orloysky. In the 1880s, he had many successes with his landscapes and went to Paris where he met Bogoliubov and Gritsenko, with whom he became friends. The latter converted him to the art of the sea for which he became known in Russia as well as in France. His 1893 composition is reminiscent of that of Gritsenko and other artists such as Jourdan, in the Musée du Vieux Toulon. In Tkatchenko's painting, we can see a boat with a chimney loaded with passengers saluting the squadron in the Russian colors, sailing past the ships. This is the same as in Gritsenko's composition, but at a different moment. This proximity in the treatment of the scene, in two different works, evokes the friendship of the two artists who can be imagined sketching the same scene together. It also testifies to the veracity and historical reality of the composition, as seen in numerous photographs taken during the event and published in the press and in commemorative works. Tkatchenko's painting was offered in 1895 by the Russian sovereign to the city of Lyon as a thank you for welcoming the squadron on October 25, 1893."[1] To date, three versions of "Arrival of the Russian Imperial Squadron in the Port of Toulon, October 13, 1893" by the painter Mikhail Stepanovich Tkatchenko are known. The Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon has in its collections the painting offered by Emperor Nicholas II to the city of Lyon in 1895 in gratitude for the reception of the squadron on October 25, 1893. The painting was assigned to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in 1987 (Arrival of the Russian Imperial Squadron in the Port of Toulon, October 13, 1893, oil on canvas, 153 x 276 cm) [2]. Another painting was offered to the city of Toulon but disappeared during the Second World War (Arrival of the Russian Imperial Squadron in the port of Toulon, October 13, 1893, oil on canvas, 143 x 233 cm).[3] The work presented here is a similar smaller version on the same theme (Arrival of the Russian Imperial Squadron in the Port of Toulon, October 13, 1893, oil on canvas 42 x 79 cm, signed and dated lower left M. Tkatchenko 1893) [1] Wilfried Zeisler, Figures de l'alliance franco-russe : tableaux de marines autour de 1900, Art, pouvoir et politique, 2004, Somogy Éditions d'art, p.97-104 [2] Lavergne-Durey Valérie, Buijs Hans, Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, Paris, RMN, 1993, p. 280. [3] Ibid