Beschreibung:

KONSTANTIN EGOROVICH MAKOVSKY Russia 1839-1915 Portrait of Ekaterina Dolgorukova, Princess Yurievskaya Signerad och daterad K. Makovsky (med kyrilliska bokstäver) 1880. Olja på duk, 190 x 109 cm. Please note that in order to place a bid exceeding 3 M SEK or more via Live Online Bidding requires a special approval. Please contact Client service at livebidding@auktionsverket.se no later than 24 hours before the auction. UTSTÄLLD XXII Exhibition of the St Petersburg Society of Artists, 1913 LITTERATUR Sergey Makovsky: Portraits of Contemporaries, New York 1955, omnämnd i texten The portrait depicts Catherine Dolgorukova (1847-1922), from 1880 - Her Serene Highness Princess Yuryevskaya, the second, morganatic, wife of Russian Emperor Alexander II. Their marriage did not last long, just one year, because of the tragic premature death of the emperor. The first acquaintance with Catherine, when she was still a young girl, took place in 1859, when Alexander II stayed with Prince Dolgorukov on the estate of Teplovka near Poltava, during military exercises organized on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Poltava. Soon afterwards Catherine's father was financially ruined, and the emperor took the children into his care: four brothers and two sisters. The girls were sent to the Smolny Institute. On Palm Sunday in 1865, Alexander II, when visiting the Smolny Institute, was presented to the seventeen-year-old Ekaterina Dolgorukova, whom he remembered. He immediately fell under the charm of the young girl. They began to meet secretly, and soon Catherine became the Emperor's favorite. At that time, the Empress Maria Alexandrovna was already sick with consumption and bed-ridden. The liaison between the emperor and Catherine Dolgorukova caused great displeasure to many of the Romanov family and, above all, to the Tsarevich, the future emperor Alexander III. But their attachment was strong, sincere, mutual and stood the test of time. Even before their marriage, Ekaterina gave birth to four children to the Emperor: George (1872-1913), Olga (1873-1925), Boris (1876, died in infancy), and Catherine (1878-1959). After the death of Empress Maria Alexandrovna on May 22, 1880, and before the expiration of the period of mourning, on July 6, 1880, in the military chapel of the Tsarskoye Selo palace, the marriage of Alexander II and Catherine Dolgorukova took place, and in December she was granted the title of Princess Yuryevskaya, which was related to one of the family names of the boyar Romanovs. The children, legitimised retrospectively, also received the surname Yurievsky. Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky - the last great Russian painter of Russia, "the artistic ceremony master," as he was called by contemporaries, painted many portraits of the emperor and of his family members. It was not for nothing that Alexander II called him "my artist". Konstantin Makovsky had the opportunity to personally communicate with the emperor, who repeatedly posed for him. Sergei Makovsky writes about this in great detail; one of the chapters of the memoirs "Father and My Childhood" is called "Portraits of Alexander II". As Sergei Makovsky recalled, at the beginning of summer of 1880, the young Imperial couple retired to the Livadia Palace in the Crimea. Work immediately began on three portraits: that of the emperor, of his young wife, and of their children: George, Olga and Catherine. The atmosphere in which these works were created was the warmest. Sergei Makovsky recalls: "In the Livadia atmosphere, he (the emperor - E.N.) impressed everyone by his simplicity and cordiality. As the portraits of his wife, son and daughters were being painted, he attended all the sessions, gave cautious advice, joked, affectionately scolded the naughty Gogu, and as a parting gift gave his father (K.E. Makovsky-E.N) candy and flowers to his "beautiful wife" (Yu.P. Makovsky-E.N) ". Begun in Livadia, the portraits were finished in Petersburg. As Sergei Makovsky reported: