Alexei Petrovich Bogoliubov

Commissioned by the future Tsar Alexander III and Grand Duchess Maria Fedorovna in 1867
Collection of Empress Maria Fedorovna
Imperial Collection of Alexander III, Anichkov Palace (from 1870 in Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo)
Alexander Palace Museum, until 1931
Acquired by the present owner in the second half of the 1970s

‘Catalogue of Paintings Belonging to Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Tsesarevna’, Veliki knyaz’ Aleksandr Aleksandrovich: Sbornik dokumentov, Moscow, 2002, p.638, no.11 listed; p. 675, no.469 listed

The canvas has been lined and the original tacking edges are missing. There are minor frame abrasions along the edges. There is some minor craquelure in places and the paint surface is covered with a layer of dirt. Inspection under UV light does not reveal any signs of restoration. Held in its beautiful original frame. Unexamined out of frame.
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This summer view of Fredensborg Palace once belonged to Maria Fedorovna, the wife of Tsar Alexander III. In 1867, Bogoliubov joined Alexander Alexandrovich, and his young wife on their visit to Denmark. An inventory of Maria Fedorovna’s collection lists four works commissioned by the couple from Bogoliubov during this 1867 visit, two of which depict Fredensborg. The number 11 on the frame cartouche of the present work matches the listing in the inventory for the first of these commissions, titled Fredensborgskyi dvorets, as do the dimensions, position of the signature and subject.

Fredensborg Palace, built in the 1720s in the French Baroque style, became one of the main residences of the Danish royal family. It would have held fond memories for Maria Fedorovna, or Dagmar as she was known to her father, King Christian IX of Denmark. First betrothed to Alexander’s brother, the Tsesarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich, Dagmar of Denmark suffered greatly when he died at a tragically young age, entrusting his fiancée to his brother. Bogoliubov had also become close to the Tsesarevich during his Russian grand tours, for which he acted as official artist. It must have been great solace for Dagmar to meet Bogoliubov when she arrived in St Petersburg in 1866 for her marriage to Alexander. In his diary, the artist recalls conversing with her about her love of art and antiquities and he soon became her drawing tutor. There is no doubt that the painting served also as souvenir of their time together in Denmark, and the seated figure sketching in the foreground as elegant ladies stroll is unmistakably a self-portrait.

The painting later passed into the possession of Alexander, and in 1870, it was transferred from the Anichkov to the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, where it hung with around thirty of the very finest of Bogoliubov’s canvassas in his dining room. It was removed from the palace in 1931 together with many of Alexander and Maria Fedorovna’s belongings.