Please read more in our catalogue or see attached text on the lot no. here.

We thank the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum-Reserve for their comments on both paintings based on photographs as well as information on P. G. Zinoviev.

Provenance: The Danish wholesaler and engineer Jacob Poul Charles Knap (b. Copenhagen 1879, d. Fredensborg 1964), who ran a business in St. Petersburg and Moscow around the time of the Russian revolution in 1917. Here he acquired several Russian paintings, including the two present paintings by P. G. Zinoviev. On 18 June 1917, J. P. C. Knap was married to the Dane Gerda Knap, née Struckmann (b. Næsby 1892, d. Copenhagen 1970) in the Swedish church in St. Petersburg. In the summer of 1918, the couple fled to Denmark, and J. P. C. Knap wanted to bring as many of his paintings as possible, including the two up for the present Russian sale. To make the transportation easier, he took them out of their stretchers and out of the frames. Once they had arrived safely in Denmark, he had the paintings put on new Danish stretchers with Danish frames. Thence by descent to J. P. C. Knap's grandson in Denmark until today.