Boris Riab (Russian-French, 1898-1975), English Setters on Point

Oil on canvas, signed at lower right, framed.

Stretcher size 15 x 31 in.; Frame dimensions 23 3/4 x 39 3/4 in.

Private Collection, Edenton, North Carolina

Boris Riab, born Boris Riabouchinsky in Moscow, was a Russian-born artist renowned for his depictions of sporting dogs and gamebirds. Trained at the Moscow Academy of Fine Arts and a cavalry officer in World War I, he fled the Russian Revolution and eventually settled in Paris in 1927. There, he adopted the name “Riab” and gained a following among elite hunting circles for his detailed watercolors and lithographs of hunting scenes.

Riab’s work, focused on pointers, retrievers, ducks, and pheasants, appeared in major French sporting publications and was widely published by Parisian lithography firms. He exhibited at the Salon des Animaliers and remained active into the 1950s, producing commissions and prints now highly prized by collectors.

Light surface grime; minor scattered paint flakes; areas of retouch visible under UV light at lower left and to abrasion in grass beneath the setters.