Bilibin, Ivan I
The Black Horseman from the Russian fairytale 'Vassilissa the Beautiful'
- Year: 1930's
- Medium: Oil
- Price: SOLD
This piece belonged to the Collector's Art Gallery through May of 2006. It has since been auctioned at Christie's and is now in a private collection.
Ivan Iakovlevich Bilibin was an influential painter, graphic illustrator, and stage designer, whose themes were based on stylized Russian folk and medieval art. Born outside St. Petersburg, Bilibin studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Art under Ilya Repin and was a member of the Mir Iskusstva movement. His distinct style and subject-matter embraced the country’s spirit and history, breathing new life into the ancient world of Russian fairytales and folklore.
In 1899, Bilibin was commissioned by the Imperial Stationary Office to produce a set of fairytale books for children. Among these was the tale of Vassilissa the Beautiful, a courageous heroine of Russian folklore, published in 1902. The painting owned by the Labrie family features a scene from this tale. Executed in oils on canvas, this unusually large picture (62