Auction 70 / Lot 2530

Signed and dated lower right 'J. L. Mosnier 1803'. Verso closed, surface damage in the upper area, mounted in the frame. Literature: For further information on the Hamann Collection see Sotheby's auction catalogue 'Important Russian Art' of 28.11.2011. Jean Laurent Mosnier was a French portrait and miniature painter who studied at the Paris Art Academy and later became a member of it. During the Revolution he fled to London. Residing in Hamburg since 1796, he met the Muraviev family there, whose members were portrayed by him. In 1802 Mosnier was invited to St. Petersburg, where he led a painting class at the art academy. During his stay in Russia he created several portraits of the important personalities of that time, among them this portrait of the Russian statesman and writer Mikhail Nikitish Muravyov (1757 - 1807). The painting, which was only recently rediscovered in Germany, comes from the estate of Arthur Ferdinand Hamann, a Latvian lawyer who emigrated to Hamburg with his family in 1944, taking an important collection of Russian art with him. The works by Vinogradov, Roerich, Bogoliubov, Dobuzhinsky and other important representatives of 19th/20th century Russian painting, which also came from this collection, were successfully auctioned on 28.11.2011 at Sotheby's as part of the 'Important Russian Art' auction. An important feature that distinguishes the objects of the Arthur F. Hamann Collection is the way they were framed by the restorer, Karlis Yuryans (1884-1951), who is documented to have worked at the Riga Art Museum since 1919.