Lot:27400835

A bronze Russian sculpture of a Cossack Soldier, signed lower base E Lansere

A bronze Russian sculpture of a Cossack soldier modelled in a standing pose with holding a rifle and with a drinking vessel, signed to the base E. Lansere mounted on a rouge marble base, overall height- 49cm. weight - 9.1 kg. Yevgeny Yevgenyevich Lanceray also often spelled Eugene Lansere (23 August 1875 – 13 September 1946), was a Russian graphic artist, painter, sculptor, mosaicist, and illustrator, associated stylistically with Mir iskusstva (the World of Art). Lanceray was the only prominent member of Mir iskusstva to remain in Russia after the Revolution of 1917. Being a representative of traditional painting (not avant-garde movement) and the bourgeoisie, he was not in great demand with the new Soviet government for a long time. Even his sister found the revolutionary milieu alien to her art and, in 1924, she fled to Paris. Lanceray himself hated the new Soviet regime that he had to exist in after 1917. It referred to his own understanding of the historical way of Russia and the massive oppressions towards his relatives and close friends (some of them immigrated and some of them were killed). In February 1932 he left a note in his diaries: ‘There is incredible impoverishment. Of course, this is the government’s goal to bring everyone and everything to poverty, since it is easier to manage the poor and the hungry. Lanceray left Saint Petersburg in 1917, and spent three years living in Dagestan, where he became infatuated with Oriental themes. His interest increased during journeys made in the early 1920s to Japan and Ankara, Turkey. In 1920, he moved to Tiflis, Georgia. During his stay in Georgia, he lectured at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts (1922–1934) and illustrated the Caucasian novellas of Leo Tolstoy.Three years before his death, he was honoured with the Stalin Prize, and in 1945 he was awarded the title of the People's Artist of the RSFSR. He died in Moscow at the age of 71