Rare signed cabinet photographs of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (Serge) and his wife Grand Duchess Elisaveta Feodorovna (Ella) by Moscow photographer Asikritov. The photographs come with a custom made folding frame of the period.
The front panels of the frame once were covered with cream moire silk that is mostly missing now.
5 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. (14,5 x 22,5 cm). Condition: light foxing.
Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich (1857-1905), son of Alexander II, uncle of Nicholas II, is shown in the uniform of Adjutant General of His Imperial Majesty’s Suite (Svita) with an aiguillette (of Adjutant), and conjoined ciphers of Alexander II and Alexander III on his pogoni (shoulder boards). The white cross is the badge of the military order of Saint George. From 1891 till 1905, Serge served as a Moscow Governor General and Commander of Moscow Military District (after 1896). He resigned from Governorship on January 1, 1905, but continued as Commander of the Moscow Military District. Serge was killed by a bomb thrown at him, while on service in the Kremlin, by the Socialist-Revolutionary terrorist Ivan Kalyayev.
The photograph is signed in ink by Serge near the lower border: Ilyinskoe year 1892.
ILYINSKOE is the name of the estate outside Moscow which belonged to Serge and Ella.
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5 3/4 x 8 3/4 in. (14,5 x 22,5 cm). Condition: foxing mostly to white ground around the portrait.
Grand Duchess Elisaveta (Ella) Feodorovna (1864-1918), Princess Elizabeth of Hesse by birth and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Grand Duchess Elizabeth was regarded as one of the most beautiful Princesses in Europe. In 1884, she married Grand Duke Serge. Ten years later, in 1894, her sister Alexandra married Czar Nicholas II.
Following the murder of her husband in 1905, she turned more to religion and founded a sisterhood of nuns dedicated to nursing and charity. After 1917 Revolution, Ella was imprisoned. On the night of July 17, 1918, Elisaveta, one of her nuns, and five other Romanovs, were thrown into a pit near Alapayevsk (the Urals) and pelted with grenades. Their remains were removed in October 1918 by the White Army which captured the city at that time. The remains of Ella and one of the nuns were brought from Russia to Jerusalem, where they were buried in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene.
Grand Duchess Elizaveta and her nun Varvara were canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992.
