Russian Art June 08 auction shot. © Sotheby's Images.

Tonight(June 08 ), Sotheby’s London second-ever Evening Sale of Russian Art realised a total of £21,186,850 ($41,714,789), well within the pre-sale estimate for the auction of £17-24 million. This evening’s sale saw 6 new artist records established, 12 lots sell for over $1 million and 6 for over £1 million.

Jo Vickery, Senior Director and Head of Sotheby’s Russian Art department in London, commented: “We are very pleased with the results for tonight’s Evening Sale, which demonstrate that this market continues to mature. It is clear that clients are looking for the highest quality works by blue chip Russian artists, such as seascape painter, Aivasovsky and Russia’s Impressionist artist, Korovin, whose works were hotly competed for this evening.”

This evening’s auction got off to an excellent start, with a group of five works by Russia’s most prominent marine artist, Konstantin Aivazovsky realising a combined total of £2,932,650 – £600,000 more than the pre-sale high estimate for the group of £2,325,000. The artist’s Winter Landscape was hotly contested for by two bidders in the saleroom and one on the telephone, selling for £553,250, almost seven times the pre-sale low estimate for the painting. Aivazovsky’s Pushkin and Countess Raevskaya by the Sea Near Gurzuf and Partenit was the highlight of the group, realising £1,833,250, which represents the second highest price paid in tonight’s sale.

Nature Morte aux Fruits, the Russian avant-garde masterpiece by Natalia Goncharova was the top lot. The painting – one of several still lifes that Goncharova executed in the years 1912-13, prior to the artist’s departure for Paris – sold for £2,281,250 against an estimate of £2-3 million. The work, which came from a private French collection and is previously unpublished, was a gift from the artist to Guillaume Apollinaire, the French poet, writer and art critic. Still Life with Red Flowers and Peaches, the second work by Goncharova in the sale, realised £1,161,250 (est. £1-1.5 million). The still life, which is a major work from the early Russian avant-garde period, is believed to date from 1910 and is one of Goncharova’s first still lifes in oil.

Tonight’s sale also saw works by the artist Zinaida Serebriakova break the £1 million mark, when her Reclining Nude, signed and dated 1929, sold for more than five times its pre-sale high estimate (est. £150,000-200,000). The pastel on paper, which saw intense bidding, smashed the previous record for the artist at auction by almost £200,000.

A group of four works by Russia’s Impressionist painter, Konstantin Korovin performed exceptionally well, with each work exceeding its pre-sale high estimate. The group was highlighted by the sale of the artist’s oil on canvas View from the Terrace, which realised £1,497,250 – more than double its pre-sale low estimate of £600,000 – setting a new record for the artist auction. This highly-sought work depicts the famous Black Sea resort of Gurzuf and is thought to be the view from Korovin’s Villa. The group realised a combined total of £2,995,400, which exceeded the pre-sale estimate for the group by more than £900,000 (est. £1,520,000-2,080,000) and saw Boulevard des Capucines command £847,650; Paris by Night bring £289,250; and The South of France realise £361,250.

Further works which achieved high prices in tonight’s sale include Boris Kustodiev’s oil on canvas, The Flower Harvest, which sold for £1,026,850 (est. £600,000-800,000); The Kremlin on the Eve of the Coronation of Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich by Konstantin Yuon brought £959,650 (est. £800,000-1,200,000) and set a new record for the artist at auction; and Trees by Robert Falk realised £937,250 (est. £500,000-700,000).