In the spring of 1892,
Serov
received a commission on Ilia Repin's recommendation for a large painting
depicting the Emperor Alexander III and his family. It was ordered for the
hall of the Kharkov Gentry Association, which wanted to celebrate the
survival of the Tsar's family in a train wreck at the Borki train station
near Kharkov on October 17,1888.
Serov's request to paint the
family from life was not immediately granted. The monarch Alexander III
had never before posed for an artist, and Serov received one opportunity
to attend one of the emperor's appearances. The three younger members of
the family - the Grand Duke Mikhail Aleksandrovich (Romanov) and the Grand
Duchesses Olga (1882-1952) and Kseniia - did sit for Serov's study
portraits, which he painted from life in three sessions per portrait.
Serov's studies of Mikhail and Olga are now in the
State Russian Museum, while that of Kseniia remains in the Pskov Art History Museum and
Sanctuary.
