Important Spring Sale presents an important artwork by Alexei Petrovich Bogoljuboff from the Imperial Collection of Tsar Alexander III

Alexander III often travelled in Russia and abroad in Europe, buying and commissioning new works of art. The imperial collection would eventually consist of over 800 works. On Bogoljuboff's initiative, an inventory of the collections was drawn up in 1872 in the Anichkov Palace in St Petersburg. From the 1870s to the 1920s the collection was housed in the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo. The reverse side of the present lot is applied with a paper label of the Anichkov Palace and inscribed with abbreviation 'Ts. S.D.' for Tsarsko-Selskii Dvorets (Palace at Tsarskoe Selo), thus documenting that the present painting was exhibited consecutively in both Imperial residences.

The scene is a dramatic nocturnal view where smoke from the fires drifts in black streaks across the sky. The moonlight filters down and is reflected in the river, which is bustling with activity despite the lateness of the hour. A charming detail is the little ship's dog standing at the bow of the sloop, which is moving across the foreground rowed by a dozen uniformed oarsmen. The painting is one of many works by Bogoljuboff included in the Russian imperial collections of Tsar Alexander III and Maria Feodorovna. Bukowskis has previously sold "Riverboats on the Don" which was also part of the imperial collections.