YULIY YULIEVICH KLEVER (RUSSIAN 1850-1924) Spätherbst [Late Autumn], 1912 oil on canvas 124.5 x 110.5 cm (49 x 43 1/2 in.) signed and dated lower right; inscribed by the artist on verso in German `Dieses Bild ‘Spätherbst’ ist bei mir gemalt auf Bestellung des Ca[naus] Begemann. Professor Julius Klever. Riga, den 20 December, 1912` PROVENANCE Collection of C. Begemann, Riga (acquired directly from the artist) LOT NOTES The breathtaking wild forest depicted in the present lot by Yuliy Yulievich Klever first entered the artist`s oeuvre after a trip to Naissaar, and island off the coast of Estonia, in the Gulf of Finland, in 1879. Klever`s work can be classified as quintessential Russian Romanticism, and already by the mid 1870s, owning a work by the artist was deemed an earmark of good taste. This might have initially come as a surprise, since just a few years earlier, in 1871, the artist withdrew from the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, as he found his style to be fundamentally at odds with the approach of his revered instructors. Despite not having officially completed his formal training at the Academy, the artist was awarded the rank of Artist of the First Order and became an Academician in 1878. Shortly thereafter, in 1880, Klever received the rank and post of Professor at the Academy of Fine Art. Klever`s works were acquired for the collections of Count Pavel Stroganov, Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Pavel Tretyakov, and even Alexander III. By the 1880s and 1890s, Klever`s popularity had reached such a frenzy that patrons and hopeful clients were vying literally for any sketch by the master. The ever-growing demand for his work led Klever to establish a workshop in which pieces were created jointly with a professional staff. Unlike the richly painted present lot, which was commissioned from the artist by Canaus Begemann in 1912, the workshop paintings tend to be formulaic, frequently relying on a series of compositional devices employed in different configurations, and which were often completed in just one day. Given the artist`s unwaning popularity, it is increasingly rare to find works of the caliber seen in Spatherbst on the art market.