Footnotes

• Provenance
  XIII International Art Exhibition (Biennale), Venice, 1922, no. 227 (according to label on base)
  By repute acquired by a private American collector from the above
  Thence by descent to the present owner, Los Angeles
  
  Exhibited
  Venice, XIII International Art Exhibition (Biennale), 1922, hall 36, no. 227, possibly as Ballerina Russa
  
  The offered lot is a portrait-statuette of Tamara de Svirsky (Swirskaya) (1883-1972), a renowned pianist and dancer who performed around the world. Russian-born but raised in Paris, Countess Svirsky's career was remarkable, placing her in the path of such composers as Edvard Grieg and Igor Stravinsky, and dancers such as Anna Pavlova. de Svirsky met many members of Europe's high society and spent the last two decades of her life in Los Angeles, performing as a pianist of renown.
  
  Prince Paul Troubetzkoy (1866-1938), celebrated sculptor of Russian and American parentage and Italian upbringing, was renowned for the fluid modelling style of his portrait statuettes. His innovative verve and elegance revitalised the uniform realism of the existing style of sculpture in both Europe and Russia, and early on in his career he became much sought after in royal circles and among the great and the good of Europe. His style is often compared to the energetic refinement of the Italian painter, Giovanni Boldini, and his handling of the medium of bronze is indeed painterly, infusing his work with those qualities of quivering light and intransient appearance which set apart the masterpieces of Impressionist painting.
  
  Troubetzkoy fist met Countess Svirsky in Paris when he moved there from Russia in 1905. It was soon after this move that he also met the famous Spanish painter, Joaquin Sorolla, and - remarkably - the portrait-statuette Troubetzkoy created of de Svirsky would mark the path of the sculptor's future success in America.
  
  Troubetzkoy was impressed by Sorolla's incredible success in America, following a much-hailed exhibition of the Spaniard's work in New York at the Hispanic Society of America in 1909, and he wrote to the artist, asking for his help with an introduction to the founder of the society, the collector Archer M. Huntington. Sorolla, presumably obliges because by December 1909, a letter from Troubetzkoy states that he has sent him a bronze cast of the portrait-statuette of Countess Svirsky, reminding Sorolla at the same time that he had promised him a picture in return. This exchange is further realised in Sorolla's 1910 portrait, Clotilde on the Sofa (Sorolla Museum, Madrid), in which the sculpture of Countess Svirsky is visible behind the sitter.
  
  The bravura modelling technique which Troubetzkoy brought to the bronze perfectly captures the dynamism and spirit of Tamara de Svirsky. He sought to give his bronzes greater surface naturalism, investing them with a crispness and sharpness which enabled his touch to be far more clearly determined, and the offered lot vividly recreates the excitement of a barefoot performance. This rare and finely cast bronze reveals Troubetzkoy's mastery of technique in the sure swift strokes of the modelling, his imagination and his sensitivity to the subject.

Saleroom notices

• Please note that the bronze is now lacking the Venice Biennale label which was originally applied to the base.