A LARGE RUSSIAN ICON OF NIKOLAI MOZHAISKY WITH A METAL OKLAD, NORTHERN SCHOOL, 18TH CENTURY, The saint depicted holding a sword in one hand and the city of Mozhaisk, as a symbol of his patronage, in the other. The central figure of Saint Nikolai surrounded by fourteen scenes from his life. Egg tempera, gold leaf, and gesso on wood panel with a kovcheg. Two insert splints on the back (one missing). 64 X 51 cm. (25 1/8 X 20 1/8 in.) PROVENANCE: Purchased by the Mother of the current owner in Russia during the 1920s; thence by descent in Family Collection. LOT NOTES: During the late 1920s, shortly after the Russian Revolution, two young New York society women, sisters Adelaide and Helen Hooker secretly traveled to Russia “out of curiosity and cussedness.” Unbeknownst to their father, the president of the American Defense Society, they spent over six months in snowy Russia, pursuing adventure in Moscow, Leningrad, Vladimir, Novgorod, and Suzdal among other cities. Searching for a glimpse of “Old Russia,” the women sought-out ancient churches and monasteries, just as they were being taken over by the government and converted to Anti-Religious museums. This icon was among those that Adelaide and Helen Hooker purchased from these establishments and brought to the United States, in effect saving them from becoming victims of iconoclasm. In the States, the icons were kept in esteemed family collections. One of the sisters would go on to marry the IRA officer Ernie O'Malley, the other the writer John P. Marquand. Their youngest sister, Blanchette, went on to marry John D. Rockefeller III, and would become a major benefactor of the Museum of Modern Art, where she served as president from 1972 to 1985. The story of their travels was published in Good Housekeeping, July-September 1930.