ILYA I. MASHKOV (1881-1944) Moscow-Volga Canal, 1935

Oil on cardboard 73 x 26.5 cm Provenance: Collection of Mashkova Maria Ivanovna, the widow of the artist; Collection of the artist Alexei Dementevich Shmarinov (born in 1933); Auction Koller, 7 December 2005, lot 3074; Auction Sotheby’s, London, 27 November 2007, lot 311. In 1935, the famous architect Alexei Shchusev, who worked on the construction of the hotel "Moscow", addressed to Mashkov with the request to issue a banquet hall of the hotel. The artist executed a series of monumental murals dedicated to the achievements of the Soviet state (Artek, the Moscow metro, explorers, and others.). Now the panels are stored in the Moscow Museum of Architecture. This work is the first one for the preliminary development composition "Channel Moscow-Volga". Two more Mashkov sketches on this topic are in the Moscow collection of Ina Bazhenova. The construction of “Moscow-Volga Canal” - one of the major projects of the Soviet state in 1930. 128-meter canal still gives Moscow more than 60% of the water consumed, provides power to the Moscow area, and creates the shortest water-transport communication between Moscow and upper Volga.