ALEXANDER SAMOKHVALOV (RUSSIAN 1894-1971) ALEXANDER SAMOKHVALOV (RUSSIAN 1894-1971) Girl in an Interior, 1940 oil on canvas 96.5 x 67.5 cm (38 x 26 1/2 in.) titled, dated and inscribed with a confirmation of authorship on the verso by Maria Samokhvalova, the artist`s daughter, in 1993 PROVENANCE Property of a former United States Senator, who acquired the painting in Moscow circa 1993 LOT NOTES Alexander Samokhvalov is regarded as one of the founders and brightest representatives of the Leningrad school of painting. The present lot, Girl in an Interior reflects the pre-war life of the Leningrad intelligentsia, and is a continuation of the series of Samokhvalov`s works dedicated to young Russian women - builders of new life. This composition was created in 1940 - three-years after the artist`s famous Girl in a Football Shirt was awarded the gold medal at the International Art Fair in Paris, (which also included Pablo Picasso`s Guernica). The tenderness, refinement, and intimacy of this portrait is a rare work by a master of Soviet Socialist Realism and heir apparent to Petrov-Vodkin.