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拍品專文
Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna modelled for Leopold Bernard Bernstamm in September 1895 at Tsarskoe Selo. Nicholas II makes a note of two sessions with Bernstamm in his diary, whilst his wife only modelled for one hour: ‘After breakfast spent more than an hour sitting for Bernstamm, who was invited by Bogolyubov’ (Diaries of Nicholas II, Moscow, 1991, pp. 103-104).
Leopold Bernstamm, born in Riga, studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg and achieved fame after completing thirty busts of Russian cultural figures in the early 1880s, notably writers and dramatists. On moving to Paris in 1885, he exhibited at the Salon des Champs-Élysées. In 1896 he was invited to Tsarskoe Selo to portray the Imperial couple. The next year these busts were commissioned from the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory after the visit of the Russian Emperor and Empress to Paris in 1896.
On their way to Versailles, Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna visited the Sèvres porcelain factory and were presented with porcelain busts of other Romanov emperors. They were accompanied by the French President Félix Faure, who also visited the Imperial couple in St Petersburg the following year. It is possible to suggest that the present busts were produced to commemorate this official visit.
Another version of the bust of Emperor Nicholas II is part of the collection of the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. A comparable pair of busts was sold Sotheby's, New York, 26-28 April 2006, lot 217.
Leopold Bernstamm, born in Riga, studied at the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St Petersburg and achieved fame after completing thirty busts of Russian cultural figures in the early 1880s, notably writers and dramatists. On moving to Paris in 1885, he exhibited at the Salon des Champs-Élysées. In 1896 he was invited to Tsarskoe Selo to portray the Imperial couple. The next year these busts were commissioned from the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory after the visit of the Russian Emperor and Empress to Paris in 1896.
On their way to Versailles, Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna visited the Sèvres porcelain factory and were presented with porcelain busts of other Romanov emperors. They were accompanied by the French President Félix Faure, who also visited the Imperial couple in St Petersburg the following year. It is possible to suggest that the present busts were produced to commemorate this official visit.
Another version of the bust of Emperor Nicholas II is part of the collection of the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg. A comparable pair of busts was sold Sotheby's, New York, 26-28 April 2006, lot 217.