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Acquired from an exhibition of
V.A. Serov's works in 1914;
earlier in the
collection of the Empress Maria Fedorovna.
In the spring of 1892, Serov received a commission on I.E. 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.
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