Paintings and Miniatures

Miniature portrait of the Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich in childhood

    Miniature portrait of the Grand Duke Pavel Alexandrovich in childhood

    Russia

    the 1850-1860's

    Ivory, glass, metal, enamel, lapis lazuli, leather; watercolours, gouache, casting, gilding

    16.2 х 12.0 х 8.7 cm

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    A double-sided portrait miniature with a chest-high portrait of a boy in a coral-coloured Russian-style shirt is inserted in an oval glass plate. It is fixed flexible. The viewer sees not only the face of the child, but his back and neck, that is, the reverse of the miniature. The miniature is fixed on an artistically decorated stand with four Renaissance male and female figurines. The whole composition is mounted on a rectangular base lined with lapis lazuli, on the reverse side of which is the name and title of the depicted person: "ВЕЛИКIЙ КНЯЗЬ ПАВЕЛЪ АЛЕКСАНДРОВИЧЬ" (GRAND DUKE PAVEL ALEKSANDROVICH).

    Presented series of portraits is stylistically and compositionally close to children's portraits of the 1850s by the Court artist Woldemar Hau (1816-1895). This miniature could be executed on the master's layout original.

    Pavel Alexandrovich (1860-1919) - the Grand Duke, the youngest son of the Emperor Alexander II (1818-1881) and the Empress Maria Alexandrovna (1824-1880), the brother of the Emperor Alexander III. In 1889, he married the Princess Alexandra of Greece (1870-1891). After her death in 1902, he re-entered a morganatic marriage with Olga Valerianovna Pistolkors (1865-1929, from 1915 - Princess Paley), after which he was dismissed from service, stripped of his rank and expelled from Russia. In 1908, on the occasion of his daughter's from his first marriage wedding, he was forgiven by the Emperor Nicholas II and got a permission to return to Russia. He was shot by the Bolsheviks on the night of January 29-30, 1919 in the Peter and Paul fortress. The place of his burial is unknown.


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    Инв.8275/ИЗО