Photo: photographer Levitsky took
the picture of the wife and daughter of Emperor Alexander II
in 1869. That was one of the first photos taken in Russia
Posted on 03/07/2004 9:55:16 AM PST by yankeedame
First Photo of Emperor Family Poses Mystery
02/28/2004 12:59
One of the first photos taken in Russia at the rise of photography recently found in Vologda
Today one can see pictures of the president everywhere, even on toothpicks. However, people in last centuries cherished pictures of the emperor family like the apple of the eye.
This fact is confirmed with a find made by collector Gennady Belinsky from the Russian city of Vologda. Gennady found a picture of Empress Maria Alexandrovna with her daughter, the family of Alexander II, carefully wrapped in a newspaper in the debris of a furnace in a house in Lermontov Street. The recently destroyed house belonged to priest Vasily Karpov before the year of 1913.
The Empress presented the original of the picture to co-student of great poet Alexander Pushkin in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyseum, Alexander Gorchakov in 1869. At that time, any photo was a rarity, and the picture from the Empress was particular favor.
The photo recently discovered in Vologda was replicated from the same negative that the one the Empress presented to the Great Chancellor. As museum experts determined by the quality of paper and the printing method, the photo belonged to the first limited edition because photography just appeared in the 1860-1870s in this country.
The photo was taken by photographer Levitsky, unfortunately the first name of the author is not mentioned in any of the catalogues where the photo is printed.
In the 1870s, there were two photographers named Levitsky and both took pictures of the Royal Family. One of the two was Sergey Levitsky who took pictures of the Decembrists and Russian writers such as Leo Tolstoi, Alexander Gertsen and Ivan Turgenev.
It is still a mystery how the photo appeared in the house of priest Vasily Karpov. A photo of some clergyman was wrapped in the same newspaper together with the picture of the Empress; it is not ruled out this is a photo of priest Vasily Karpov.
Vasily Karpov was an outstanding personality: he was son of a priest, graduated from the St.Petersburg Academy. Then he taught theology and Hebrew at the theology seminary in Vologda. Vasily Karpov went into the Church in 1894. It took Vasily Karpov a short period of time to make quick promotion: he became the archpriest of Spasovsegradsky Cathedral (Russia's second great cathedral). It was only the bishop who had a higher dignity than Vasily Karpov in the city of Vologda at that time. Vasily Karpov was given the Saint Synod's blessing and numerous awards. The priest died at the age of 63 in 1913.
There is no information about descendants of Vasily Karpov. It is still not clear who was carefully keeping the photo of the tsar family in the house of the priest.
Natalya Mikhailova
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