Lot 2: ATTRIBUTED TO JAN KANIEWSKI (1805- 1867) Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich

ATTRIBUTED TO JAN KANIEWSKI (1805- 1867) Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich oil on board 17 x 14.5cm (6 11/16 x 5 11/16in).

The 20-year-old Russian Grand Duke Alexander Nikolaevich, future Emperor Alexander II of Russia, is presented wearing the uniform of a major-general of Leib-Guards Preobrazhensky Regiment. He is wearing the same uniform as in a well-known watercolour by Woldemar Hau, 1841. Most possibly, this small portrait was painted in Rome during the Grand Duke’s several-months-long stay in this city. The engraving after this portrait was included in D. A. Rovinski’s Detailed Dictionary of Russian Engraved Portraits . The Russian text beneath the engraving is as follows: I. Kaniewski painted 1839. - F. Jordan engraved. 1839 /His Imperial Majesty /Grand Duke Tsarevich /Alexander Nikolaevich /Heir of All-Russia Throne . Incidentally, in 1839, both the painter Polish-Russian Jan Ksawery Kaniewski and the engraver Fedor Ivanovich Jordan lived in Rome on scholarships funded by the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Fine Arts.