(Stanichnaya Sloboda near Tambov 1861-1904 Didvino near Novgorod)
An Angel Frees Peter from the Dungeon, signed in Cyrillic, oil on canvas, 232 x 156 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Collection of an Austrian church painter who carried out commissions for areas of the former Czarist empire; Thence by descent, Private Collection Vienna.

Literature:
S. N. Kondakov, Directory of Russian Artists, St. Petersburg 1914 (new edition 2002), (in Russian); F. I. Bulgakov, Our Artists, St. Petersburg 1889-90, p. 135, new edition 2002 (in Russian); A. Rostislavov, Andrei Petrovich Ryabushkin. Life and Work, Moscow 1913, p. 85 (in Russian); V. I. T. Bogdan, Class of Historical Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Second Half of the 19th Century, St. Petersburg 2007 (in Russian).

We are grateful to Dr. Olga Sugrobova-Roth for her scientific assistance.

The present lot is the final work for which Ryabushkin, a student of the legendary art teacher Pavel Chistyakov, was awarded a gold medal of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1889. Especially impressive is the compositional structure of the painting, to which Chistyakov always attributed great importance. The apostle’s graceful face and lighting conditions indicate that Ryabushkin came from a family of icon painters. As early as 1913, A. A. Rostislavlev wrote in his monograph that the whereabouts of the painting were unknown. Two sketches for the composition of the present lot and one drawing of the head of the Apostle Paul are preserved in the Museum of the Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.