Lot Details
Lot 103
Grand Duke George Mikhailovich: Drawing of His Prison Cell in Petrograd, 1918
Addressed to Princess Nina Georgievna and depicting his prison cell in Petrograd, inscribed in Russian: Cell / 3 steps wide / 7 steps long / Sitting on my bed to draw a view of my room, cell 223 / It will be a keepsake for Nina from Papa / 14/27 September 1918 / Prison in which I have been held / Since 16/29 July, the reverse inscribed in Russian: For my soul Nina as a keepsake from Papa, together with a list of supplies delivered to the Grand Duke's prison cell; framed together with a reproduction photograph of the Grand Duke. Height of letter approximately 8 1/8 inches (20.6 cm.)., width 5 1/2 inches (14 cm.).
Provenance:
Princess Nina Georgievna Chavchavadze (1901-1974).
Prince David Pavlovich Chavchavadze (1924-2014).
By descent to the present owner.
In the summer of 1918, upon his return from Finland and exile in Vologda, Grand Duke George Mikhailovich was arrested, returned to Petrograd and imprisoned together with his brother Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich (1859-1919) and cousin Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich (1860-1919). "If it were not for you three who are everything to me in life," he wrote at the time to his wife, Grand Duchess Marie, "it would, I believe, be indifferent to me if I were shot" (Grand Duchess George, A Romanov Diary: The Autobiography of H.I. & R.H. Grand Duchess George, G.N. Tantzos and M.A. Eilers, ed., New York, 1988, p. 232). Only several months later, in January 1919, George and the two other grand dukes were executed by a Bolshevik firing squad. It was not until February 1919 that the Grand Duchess read of her husband's death in the newspaper, confirmed by wire from Finland the following day. She wrote, "It is useless to try to describe the agony I went through having to tell this news to my poor girls." (Grand Duchess George, ibid., p. 239).
The present lot is one of three drawings completed by Grand Duke George Mikhailovich and sent to his wife and daughters in England. One of the other two drawings was sent to his wife, Marie, and is referenced in the Grand Duke's letter dated August 10/23 1918 (which is offered as part of lot 102). The other, dated 15/28 September 1918, was sent to his younger daughter Xenia and was sold Christie's, New York, May 20, 2015, lot 77.
C Property from the Descendants of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia
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