Princess Maria Tenisheva (Russian 1858-1928): A Russian Enameled Gilt Bronze Box from the ‘Enchanted Beasts' Series: Boar Inscribed with artist's cypher ‘MT', dated ‘1908', and with numeral ‘5' 3-3/4 x 2-1/4 x 5 inches (9.5 x 5.7 x 12.7 cm) PROVENANCE: Acquired by a Russian nobleman, Paris, approximately 1929-1930; A gift to a member of the princely Troubetzkoy family, circa 1970s; Thence by descent. ILLUSTRATED: Exhibition catalogue, Salon de 1909, Société Nationalé des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1909, No. 2595; Roerich, Nikolai, Les Animaux mystérieux. Niva, Нива. 1909. №18. pp. 340-341. LITERATURE: Exhibition catalogue, Salon de 1909, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1909, No. 2595; Roerich, Nikolai, Les Animaux mystérieux. Niva, Нива. 1909. №18. pp. 340-341; Exhibition catalogue, Prague, Salon Topich, Enamel, Tapestries, Glass: Maria Tenisheva, Ory Robin, Zdenka Braunerova, 1909, No. 5; Oser, Jesco, Princess Maria Tenisheva and Her World of Enamels, Moscow, 2004, pp. 86-92, illustrated p. 88; Appendix 2, p. 156, No. 35. EXHIBITED: Salon de 1909 (XIХe exhibition). Société Nationale des Beaux-arts. Grand Palais, April 15 - June 30, 1909, Paris; Prague, Salon Topich, Enamel, Tapestries, Glass: Maria Tenisheva, Ory Robin, Zdenka Braunerova, October-November 1909. Princess Maria Tenisheva (1858-1928) Born in St. Petersburg in 1858, Maria Klavdievna (nee Pyatkovskaya) had a difficult childhood, and at the age of eighteen, accepted a proposal from a young attorney, Rafail Nikolaev, in order to leave her childhood home for a modicum of freedom. The couple had a daughter, also called Maria, but the marriage soured due to her new husband's gambling and debt issues. Taking her daughter with her, Maria Klavdievna moved to Paris, where she studied singing, until coming to the realization that the stage was not for her. Returning to St. Petersburg, she studied at the school of applied arts which had been set up by the industrialist Baron von Stieglitz and found her artistic voice. Her first youthful marriage ended in divorce after the couple had been estranged for several years in 1891. In 1892, Maria Klavdievna remarried. Prince Vyacheslav Nikolaevich Tenishev, was a scion of an ancient Russian noble family, and an active participant in Russia's cultural scene. His aristocratic family, however, refused to accept the marriage due to his second wife's divorced status and artistic endeavors. The couple bought an estate near Smolensk called Talashkino where Maria Klavdievna founded first a school, and later an artists' colony and artistic center which developed its own unique style and aesthetic grammar. Talashkino, similar to Savva Mamontov's ‘Abramtsevo', became one of the preeminent artistic and cultural centers of Russia's Arts and Crafts movement during the Silver Age at the turn-of-the-century. The death of Prince Tenishev in Paris in 1903 and the Russian Revolution of 1905, in which the Talashkino compound was rocked by social turmoil, forced Tenisheva to move temporarily to Paris. There, her work in highly creative enamels continued and reaching new heights, she began to exhibit. In 1908, in Paris, she completed a series of seven works that her friend, the artist Nikolai Roerich, christened the ‘Enchanted Beasts' which are now counted amongst her masterpieces. The Enchanted Beasts The series of animal boxes and desk objects created by Tenisheva in Paris in 1908 almost defy categorization. While they are sculptures, they also belong firmly to the world of decorative arts and objets de vertu. Seven unique works, made through the "cire perdu" (lost wax) casting process, this menagerie of Swan, Owl, Pigeon, Boar, Fish, Rooster, and Cat capture the very essence of the Talashkino style. The varicolored enameled pieces recall an ancient Slavic culture which went even beyond the decorative ideas of the 19th century Slavic revival. If the work of Sol'ntsev and others was to revive the glory of medieval Russia, Tenisheva reached back to its primordial roots. Roerich wrote: "Tenisheva wished to capture the ancient pagan fireplace: to bring to life the forgotten talismans, sent by the goddess of well-being to guard the homes of men." Roerich's passion for the pieces was shared by the public. The article he wrote for their first exhibition in 1909 called them the "Enchanted Beasts," and the collective name stuck with the grouping which was exhibited in Paris and Prague in 1909, and four of which were later shown in Brussels in 1911. Recent Discoveries of Enchanted Beasts The rediscovery of Tenisheva's "Boar" in an American private collection is an important one. Several of the other beasts have been re-discovered in recent years. Most recently, the Owl was sold at Sotheby's in June 2016. The Swan, Pigeon, and Fish were sold at Christie's London in 2010. The Rooster is known to be in a private collection in Moscow, which means that with the rediscovery of the Boar, only the Cat is now thought to be missing. The Boar is one of six in the "enchanted beasts" series in the form of boxes; the last, Swan, is a paperweight. While this the work has sometimes been referred to in English as "Pig," the Russian title Svin'ya more accurately applies to wild pigs, or boars. The tusks, crested head, and razor back suggest a wild boar rather than a domestic pig. The journey of the "Boar" "Boar" was exhibited in Paris and in Prague in 1909, where the catalog notes clearly that the work was "not for sale". The Boar was not among the pieces later exhibited in Brussels in 1911. The family of the current owner notes that the relative through marriage who acquired the Boar was very familiar with the circle of artistic Russians in Paris before the Bolshevik Revolution and in the interwar period. Family memoirs note that he traveled by train from Moscow to Paris in 1909, and lived in Paris for two years while studying, which meant that he was in Paris for the first exhibition of Tenisheva's ‘Enchanted Beasts'. He returned to Moscow in 1911 to take his state examinations and remained in Russia. During WWI, he served as a lieutenant in the Imperial forces, and, after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, in the White Army during the Russian Civil War. He retreated with his forces from Siberia to Kiev, Yalta, and ultimately to Belgrade, arriving in 1920. He returned to Paris, where he married a relative of the princely Troubetzkoy family and lived there until his death. Tenisheva died in 1928 in Paris, and it is now understood that at that time, a number of works from her collection, including the "Enchanted Beasts" were probably dispersed through sales by Tenisheva's distant relative and faithful lifetime companion, Princess E.K. Sviatopolk-Chetverinskaya (cf. Oser, J. Vdali ot Rodiny, Kraj Smolenskij, No. 12, December 2021, pp. 3-50). Tenisheva scholar Jesco Oser's hypothesis that works were sold from Tenisheva's collection has been confirmed by his recent discovery of a letter from Nikolai Roerich to Igor Grabar reading: "Yes, Repin's drawing of the young Serov came from Tenisheva, and which after her death I bought in Paris, and which is now among our things." (cf. Roerich, Nikolai, Listy dnevnika, Tom III (1942-1914), Moscow, 1996,15 October, 1946.) The letter makes it clear that at least some of the works from Tenisheva's collection went on the market after her death. It is most likely, then, that the Boar was acquired between 1929 and 1930, and it has remained in private hands for three generations. This is the first time the "Boar" has been seen in public since 1909. Heritage Auctions is grateful to Jesco Oser for his kind assistance in the research of this lot, and permission to quote from his recent scholarship. Property of a Descendant of the Princes Troubetzkoy HID12401132022 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved