When a picture speaks a thousand words
Published 27 November, 2008, 16:16
An album of 139 photographs, presenting Russia’s last imperial family in day-to-day situations, has been sold at the Bukowski's auction house in Sweden for 16,000 euros on Thursday. The collection was put together by Anna Vyrubova who was a very close friend and lady-in-waiting to Alexandra Fedorovna, consort of Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia.
The auction house’s press secretary announced that the bidding opened at 10 to 15 thousand euros and great interest was expressed immediately, especially over the phone. She also said that the name of the buyer cannot be released at present.
The album contains snapshots and postcards of the imperial family's leisure activities, life on board the imperial yacht, the Emperor at state visits and parades, and of the Empress attending to men wounded in the First World War. Many of the photos were taken and annotated by Anna Vyrubova herself.
“For six years, Vyrubova mailed both private and official photographs of the Imperial family to the Ledbrook family in Sweden. They reached the auction as part of famous collector Bryan Ladbrook’s inheritance”, Maria Slepchenko, a Bukowski auction representative told RIA Novosti.
Apart from the album, a single 1911 photograph of all five royal children was put under the hammer. On its back, it holds the four princesses’ and the prince’s signatures, presenting a unique example of royal autographs. It was sold for 16,500 euros, although the trading started at only 3,500.
The Bukowski's auction house is one of the oldest in Europe. It was founded in 1870 by an exiled Polish aristocrat and has continued to operate to the present day. This year, the planned autumn auction involved around 2,000 pieces of art, which have been sold for a total sum of around 8.3 million euros. The Russian part of the auction involved 199 lots, which sold for around 800,000 euros.
Anna Vyrubova
Although much is known and spoken about Grigoriy Rasputin, the enigmatic spiritual tutor of the last Russian imperial family, his most vehement admirer, Anna Vyrubova, remains a historical riddle. Her influence on the last of the Romanovs is still much debated.
Her mother was the descendant of notable Russian Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov, while her father, Aleksandr Taneyev, was a famous composer at the time. Although not high up in court, she was present at it from a young age and soon the Empress became taken by her, making Vyrubova her confidante.
Anna Vyrubova
During World War I she trained as a Red Cross nurse and tended to wounded soldiers along with the Tsarina and the Tsarina's two older daughters, Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna of Russia and Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia.
A notable anecdote in this influential woman’s life is the story of her disability. In 1915, she travelled to St. Petersburg by train. But a short distance outside the city, it derailed. There were many fatalities and injuries. The lady-in-waiting herself broke both her legs, her eye socket and was coughing up blood. She was slipping in and out of consciousness; local doctors stood by and watched, inert. They said she would die in any event and it was better not to make her suffer even more.
In the morning after the accident, she was taken to the royal residence in St. Petersburg. The imperial family surrounded her bedside until Rasputin, stern and silent, rushed in. He did not even greet the Emperor, but simply approached Vyrubova and, after having had one look at her, said “she will live”. The royal spiritual mentor then proceeded to collapse in the next room.
Since this event, which is depicted in detail in her memoirs, Vyrubova admired Rasputin like a saint, despite abuse and admonition directed at her by the monk’s enemies.
Ironically, she was the childhood playmate of Felix Yussupov, the man who masterminded Rasputin’s murder. Yussupov found her both unattractive and unintelligent:
“She was tall and stout with a puffy, shiny face, and no charm whatsoever. Although she was not at all intelligent, she was extremely crafty and rather sly. It was quite a problem to find partners for her. No one could have foreseen that this unattractive girl would one day become the intimate friend and evil genius of the Tsarina,” he wrote in his memoirs.
Following the Communist revolution of 1918, she was deemed to be too dim-witted and naïve to have had any significant influence on the royal family. However, she was actively prosecuted but miraculously managed to escape execution. She spent two years in hiding, before escaping to Finland in 1920.
Before leaving Russia, the writer Maxim Gorky, whom she befriended, pushed her to write her memoirs. She took his advice and wrote rare descriptions of the home life of the Tsar and his family. Vyrubova spent the rest of her days in Finland, becoming a Russian Orthodox nun in later life. She was, however, permitted to live in a private home due to her physical disabilities.
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