RUSSIAN FIGURINE 'PIONEER WITH TAMBOURINE'

RARE PORCELAIN FIGURE 'PIONEER WITH DRUM', probably circa 1926, with the mark of the Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, Leningrad, after the Soviet model by Maria Strakhovskaya (1888-1962), depicting a young boy standing barefoot with eyes cast heavenward, wearing a white shirt, red neckerchief and blue shorts, playing a yellow drum suspended from a strap over his left shoulder, standing on a rocky base painted with green foliage scrolls, height 15.5 cm, on a base with impressed hammer, sickle and cogwheel marks, stamped with the Cyrillic initials 'IK' (Ivan Kuznetsov) of the moulder and a red stamp 'Made in Russia U.S.S.R.' (minor restoration to left leg)

REFERENCES: Maria Mikhailovna Strakhovskaya (1888-1962) studied at the Society for the Encouragement of Artists (1907-1914) and was a member of art societies including the Society of Russian Sculptors and Monolith. This figure is part of a remarkable series of 'Pioneer' figures commissioned by the Lomonosov Factory from Strakhovskaya in the mid-1920s. This series includes the figures 'Pioneer walking with drum', 'Pioneer with fanfares', 'Pioneer in "Always Ready" pose with drum at feet', 'Pioneer with hammer' and 'Pioneer with flag'. The sculptor Ivan Kuznetsov worked at the Imperial Porcelain Factory from 1910 and continued working there after the 1917 Revolution. Figures produced by the factory, especially in the early 1920s, were available to a limited number of people as they were luxury items and produced in small quantities. A similar figure is illustrated in the book by T.N. Nosovich and I.P. Popova 'State Porcelain Factory, 1904-1944', (2005), p. 611. Another was exhibited in 'Children of the Soviet State' at the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, from September to November 2017, see catalogue (2017), p. 87, no. 102. See also a figure exhibited in the current exhibition 'Voice of the Time. Soviet Porcelain: Art and Propaganda' at the State Hermitage Museum from December 2017, inv. no. MF 6173, see catalogue (2017), p. 134, no. 56. Other porcelain figures after models by Maria Strakhovskaya, including 'Young Blacksmith' and 'Young Robber', were sold at Sotheby's New York on 12 April 2011, lot 172.