Important Spring Sale presents an important artwork by Alexei Petrovich Bogoljuboff from the Imperial Collection of Tsar Alexander III
The river Don in moonlight
Alexander Alexandrovich, the future Alexander III, was a great art collector. He married Princess Dagmar of Denmark, Maria Feodorovna, in 1866. The royal couple moved into the Anichkov Palace, where the growing art collection was housed. The artist Bogoljuboff, a close friend and advisor to Alexander Alexandrovich, was responsible for acquiring new works for the growing collection.

Alexander III often travelled in Russia and abroad in Europe, buying and commissioning new works of art. The imperial collection would eventually consist of over 800 works. On Bogoljuboff's initiative, an inventory of the collections was drawn up in 1872 in the Anichkov Palace in St Petersburg. From the 1870s to the 1920s the collection was housed in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. The reverse side of the present lot is applied with a paper label of the Anichkov Palace and inscribed with abbreviation 'Ts. S.D.' for Tsarsko-Selskii Dvorets (Palace at Tsarskoe Selo), thus documenting that the present painting was exhibited consecutively in both Imperial residences.

Swedish provenance
Around 1914, Swedish commercial interest in St Petersburg was at its peak. Export companies, founded during the industrial breakthrough of the 1890s were increasingly attracted to the Russian market, including AB Separator, Asea, SKF, Alfa-Laval, AGA, Bolinders, L M Ericsson and Nobel. During this period and after the revolution it was possible to acquire furniture, art and works of art. Several items of imperial provenance were sold at auction around 1920/30 in the then Soviet Union. The painting in this auction was acquired at this time and was then shipped to Sweden and has remained in the family since then.
To be sold at the Important Spring Sale
Estimate 800 000 - 1 000 000 SEK
Viewing: June 8th–13th, Berzelii Park 1, Stockholm
Open: Weekdays 11 am–6 pm, Weekends 11 am–4 pm
Auction Live: June 14th – 16th, Arsenalsgatan 2, Stockholm
