Thank you. From these pictures as well as the other one I have seen, I think he looks kind of scary, especially in the portrait.
Does anyone know if he lived at Pavlovsk with his mother and brothers before the Revolution? I thought he may have lived in Petrograd with his girlfriend. I also noticed that he seemed to be dood friends with his Vladimirovichi cousins.
GD Gavriil knew Antonina while she was dancing at the Marinsky Theater in the winter of year 1912.
He managed to speak to her during the intervals every sunday and soon after january visited her in her little appartment where she lived with her mother.
Before Easter, GD GK was in Cannes on the French Riviera with his cousin GD André Wladimirovitch at Hôtel Carlton.
Mathilde ( Mala) Kchessinska, the ballerina and GD André's lover, joined them afterwards and was accompanied by Antonina...From now then he considered her as his "fiancée", but of course couldn't have the permission to marry her.
In 1913 he asked her to quit ballet. She found an appartment on Kamennoostrovsky Perspective ( Prospekt) in the building of the insurance company "Rossia" in front of Alexandrovsky Lyceum with all modern comfort, which was a rarity. The house was built by Benois.
In the meanwhile GD GK who lived before in Pavlosk received a three big rooms appartment at Marble Palace on the second floor looking on the Palace Banks.
After GD Konstantin Konstantinovitch's death in 1915, GD GK was more and more involved with his mistress.
His first cousin Prince Chistopher of Greece was involved with the American millionaire Miss Leeds, and at Easter 1916 Antonina told him that her dream was to marry Grand Duke Gavriil. She managed to convince Prince Christopher and invited him many times for lunch in her appartment.
Prince Christopher apparently received permission from his own mother to marry, but not GD Gavriil !
And the Emperor certainly would not agree.
That's why GD GK, after discussing with his mother who was ill, decided to disobey. This happened after the Revolution of March 1917 ( so the Emperor was "locked" in Alexander Palace).
He asked his cousin Sandro of Leuchtenberg who himself intend to marry morganatically Nadejda Nikolaïevna Ignatieff (née Karalli) to find a priest to bless the wedding secretly.
The priest was found by Sandro's first cousin Countess Tina von Zarnekau.
He therefore married April 1917, 9th ( old style) at three o'clock PM in a little church ( Alexandra church). He asked his chauffeur to drive him and to send the letter he had written to his mother begging her to pray for him.
The chauffeur was very surprised because he thought he had to drive GD GK to a friend's wedding and not his !!
At the wedding ceremony were present only L P Tchistiakova ( Nina's sister) and her husband, Nina's aunt, Prince Barclay de Tolly-Weimarn ( Gavriil's friend of regiment) and a few people of Nina's entourage.
Gavriil had told his secret to his brother Ioann a few days before, but his elder brother didn't want to attend the ceremony because of their mother. But he promised to keep the secret.
Before going to the church Gavriil saw his brothers Konstantin and George who were walking on Morskaïa Street who had just met Nina in wedding dress in another car!!
When Gavriil and Nina came back home ( in her Kamennostrovsky appartment) his brother's chauffeur came with a letter asking whose wedding was that ??
He came afterwards to his mother's rooms and was met by Prince Schakhovskoy who asked: "Do I have to congratulate you ?"
His mother was very upset, but due to her education she at the end gave him her blessing.
From then on Grand Duke Gavriil moved in Nina's apartment...