L. Leroy & Cie, Palais-Royal, Paris

Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia was the fifth son and seventh child of Emperor Alexander II of Russia. He was an influential figure during the reigns of his brother Emperor Alexander III of Russia and his nephew Emperor Nicholas II, who was also his brother-in-law through Sergei's marriage to Elisabeth, the sister of Empress Alexandra.

Grand Duke Sergei's education gave him lifelong interests in culture and the arts. Like all male members of the Romanov dynasty, he followed a military career, and he fought in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, receiving the Order of St George his service.

In 1882, his brother, Tsar Alexander III, appointed him commander of the 1st Battalion Preobrazhensky Life Guard Regiment, a position he held until 1891. In 1884, Sergei married Princess Elisabeth of Hesse and by Rhine, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Although their marriage remained childless, the Grand Duke and Duchess became the guardians his brother Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich's two children: Grand Duchess Maria, and Grand Duke Dmitri.

Between 1891 and 1905, Grand Duke Sergei served as Governor-General of Moscow where he pursued very conservative policies that made him a polarizing figure. In 1894 Grand Duke Sergei was made a member of the State Council, and in 1896 he was promoted to lieutenant general and appointed as commander of Moscow Military District. The Grand Duke resigned from the Governorship on 1 January 1905, though he remained head of the Moscow Military District. Targeted by the SR Combat Organization, he was assassinated later that year by a terrorist bomb at the Kremlin during the 1905 Russian Revolution.