Realistically cast as Peter the Great, wearing the Order of St Andrew, seated on a chair and holding a cane, pointing at the scroll below inscribed in Russian 'St Petersburg will be founded here', signed on base rim in Russian 'Modelled by A. Opekushin', with Cyrillic foundry 'Property of A.N. Sokolov'
23⁵⁄₈ in. (60 cm.) high

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Lot Essay

Alexander Opekushin (1838-1923) was a member of the Imperial Art Academy, receiving a lifelong pension of 3,000 rubles from Emperor Nicholas II for his monument of Alexander III. He was mostly known for his monuments of tsars, statesmen and famous industrialists. This figure of Peter the Great is considered to have particular historic and artistic value.

Peter the Great is represented seated wearing the Order of St Andrew. The posture of the Emperor is reminiscent of Nikolai Ge’s famous painting Peter the Great interrogating the Tsarevich Alexei (1871). Comparable bronze figures are part of the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery and Russian State Museum, see Catalogue of the Collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, Sculpture of the 18th to 20th Centuries, Moscow, 2000, vol. I, p. 210, no. 262. A comparable model in silver was sold at Christie's, New York, 18 July 1996, lot 87.