Lot n° 318
Estimation :
14000 - 16000
EUR
École RUSSE du XIXe siècle
Portrait of Grand Duke Constantin Constantinovitch of Russia (1858-1915), circa 1881-1883.
And on the reverse side portrait of General Michel Vassilievitch Frounze (1885-1925), circa 1920-1923.
Oil on canvas signed on the right in Cyrillic characters: "A. Portakoff", but not identified.
Accidents, restorations, but good general condition.
H. : 88 cm - W. : 68 cm.
History: on this portrait, the young Grand Duke Constantine, grandson of Emperor Nicholas I of Russia, wears the uniform of lieutenant of the Guard crew and wears, among others, the grand collar of the Order of Saint Andrew with its plaque; the ribbon of the Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky with its plaque; the Order of Saint George and the Order of Prussian Merit. In view of the imperial naval warrant officer's epaulettes with the numerals of Emperor Alexander II (1855-1881), the decorations he wears, including the one for the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, and the fact that he leaves the navy in December 1883 to take up his duties as commander of the Izmaylovsky imperial guard regiment, we can date this portrait to between 1881 and 1883, but more probably to 1883. Because between August and his departure from the navy in December he travelled to Germany where he met his future wife, Princess Alexandra of Saxony-Altenburg (1865-1927), we believe that this portrait was sent to the young princess, as was customary at the time. The painting was then installed in her residence at the Constantine Palace near St. Petersburg, where during the communist period it was reused to paint a portrait of the Bolshevik leader Michael Vasilyevich Frunze (1885-1925) on the reverse. This work is signed in the lower right corner. Interestingly, this method of reusing the canvas was also observed in 2013 during the restoration of the large portrait of Lenin painted in 1924 by the Soviet painter Vladislav Izmaylovich (1872-1959), installed in the Hermitage, under which there was a portrait of Emperor Nicholas II painted in 1896 by Ilya Galkin (1860-1915).
Biography: Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich, uncle of Emperor Nicholas II, was a poet in his spare time. He signed his works with the initials K. R. A public figure of the first importance, he was president of the Academy of Sciences created in 1878, director of the Military School of St. Petersburg and sponsor of the Izmaïlovski Regiment. He was a friend of Tchaikovsky, who set many of K.R.'s romances to music. During his time in the imperial army, he founded a literary circle in 1882 called "Izmailov's Free Time", which soon grew outside of it. The grand duke played an important role among the members of the circle. Among them were important writers, artists, actors and many musicians. For 30 years the circle dedicated evenings to Gogol, Lermontov, Pushkin, Titucheff and Apukhtin and staged plays with well-known actresses from the Petersburg repertoire. From 1891 to 1915 he owned the Pavlovsk Palace, where he died on July 2, 1915.
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