VINOGRADOV, SERGEI (1869-1938) Pechersky Cloister. Big Belfry signed and dated 1929 Oil on canvas, 91.5 by 71 cm. Provenance: Private collection, Switzerland. Authenticity has been confirmed by Vladimir Petrov. Literature: N. Lapidus, S. Vinogradov, Zolotoi Vek, St Petersburg, 2001, the above work is visible on the photograph of the artist and his wife in the Pechery cloister. Magazine Perezvony, ed. S.A. Belotsvetova, Riga, 1929, illustrated. Pechersky Cloister. Big Belfry is part of a famous series of canvases painted by Sergei Vinogradov in 1928-1929, which are dedicated to the beautiful Pskovo-Pechersky Dormition Monastery. The artist had long been inspired by the theme of monastery life carrying on quietly against the background of magnificent old church architecture. In the early days of his artistic career Vinogradov had already created several paintings portraying pilgrims at Orthodox shrines: Exit from the Church, By the Clock-Tower (both 1893), Beggars near the Church Wall (1899) and In the Cell (1916). Vinogradov did not abandon his favourite church subjects after the Revolution. Even when he travelled to the United States for an exhibition of contemporary Soviet art, Vinogradov took with him several monastery views. One of them was Marfo-Mariinsky Convent (1922), which was bought during the first days of the exhibition by the composer Sergei Rakhmaninov, who had settled with his family in a house on the bank of the Hudson in the early 1920s. Vinogradov did not return to Soviet Russia after leaving America in 1924. He settled instead in Riga, where he soon opened a studio. There were many aspiring students, including the well-known jurist Vassily Sinaisky, who also had left Moscow for Riga. The acquaintance of these two talented people soon grew into friendship, and in the summer of 1928 Vinogradov and Sinaisky set off to neighbouring Estonia to paint the Pechersky Monastery en plein air. The monastery was founded officially in 1473, and from the XVI century, under Abbot Cornelius, it was transformed into a mighty fortress which replaced the morally outdated Izborsk. The monks engaged in missionary activities, baptising the local peoples. Already during Ivan the Terrible's times, the monastery, having been founded on foreign soil, transformed it into a Russian territory. During the two summers of 1928 and 1929 Vinogradov and Sinaisky worked on book on the Pechersky Monastery. This book was illustrated with paintings by the artist, including Pechersky Cloister presented here for auction. Published in Riga in 1929, the book, which is now a bibliographical rarity, was very popular and brought its authors to great prominence. A personal exhibition of Vinogradov's work was held in 1935 in a hall on Kalpak Street, where “the pictures of the Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery conveyed a sense of harmony”. Someone commented in a newspaper, that “Vinogradov is a striking artist: whatever he touches seems to stir and glow. All these canvases are suffused with a tender and delightful joy, one wants to live in this world”. The monastery is surrounded by ancient walls, raised “for the defence of the realm”, with the old Nikolskaya Church standing at the entrance. The main church of the monastery complex, the Dormition Cathedral with its lapis blue domes, is enveloped in greenery. A peasant women bows in veneration before an icon of the Mother of God and beggars sit on the grass, “rejected by the world and taken under its protection by the monastery”. On several canvases we can also recognise the old white stone bell tower built in 1523, still the largest in the Pskov region today. The vestry adjoining the bell tower was built in the XVII century and comprises two sections. While the main section is decorated in the Moscow style, it also features and a typical Pskov chamber dating from pre-Petrine times. Its massive white stone walls, which are easily recognisable in Roerich's famous painting of the monastery, has often inspired artists captivated by the spirit of Old Russia. Vinogradov wrote about his work on the Pechera monastery: “I always experienced a wonderful feeling upon entering the monastery — all the modern world, all that speaks of “today” fades completely and one feels such delight and awe in one's soul”.