-- here's what Greg wrote on our board at kingandwilson last night in response to RealAnastasia's question:
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Here is the ENTIRE story on the picture-feel free to share it with anyone who may ask similar questions.
I purchased the color print of this painting in 1992 in Petersburg; it was a very large print (about 2 feet by 3 and a half feet) in an old gilded frame (which unfortunately had to be left behind as I couldn't take it out of the country). The print itself was an OLD one from the turn of the century, NOT a new reproduction-it is quite stiff, on parchment, and with very vivid colors.
Being the owner of the print, I was therefore able to study it closely, and in color-and larger and in color the face very much looked like Alix (I first saw it in a shop window while passing on the street and even then thought "Oh, that's Alix!"). But written on the back of the print in Cyrillic was an inscription that read "Imperatritsa Aleksandra Feodorovna, 1896." There was another line that was smudged and thus illegible but may have had more information. So based on viewing the large, original print, in color, and based on the inscription on the reverse, I had no doubt that it was Alix.
It-along with other photos-went to the publisher in 1993 and was set that summer. The very first time I had any hint that it might not have been was in 1994, a month AFTER "The Last Empress" was published, when the same picture, in black and white, appeared for the first time to my knowledge in the Russian exhibition catalogue "Nikolai i Aleksandra" from the Hermitage, and labeled as Ella. By this time, as I say, "The Last Empress" had already been published, so it was too late to correct the information if it was in error. But again, until 1994-and after publication of "The Last Empress"-this particular portrait had never appeared in print that I knew of-I even talked to Bob Atchison about this particular portrait and the question of whether it was Alix or Ella, and he told me he had no idea and he had never seen it before being published in my book, either.
That said, I do have to say that, in the large original in color, it really does not look like Ella to me but Alix. If it is in fact Ella-and this is shown in more than one source (other than the "Nikolai i Aleksandra" 1994 catalogue, which mis-identifies several items)-then I accept it is of Ella, not Alix. But again, my determination was based on close examination of the original color print in my possession; discussion with Bob; and the inscription on the reverse in Russian. As far as I know, I was the first person outside of Russia to publish this particular portrait, and if it is of Ella, that information only came AFTER "The Last Empress" had been printed. So as far as I'm concerned, if it was a mistake, it was one based on the best evidence at the time.
I know some self-appointed "expert" (not you!) has attempted to use this picture as some sort of evidence "against" me somehow to "show" that I am somehow less than reliable but again the facts above don't support any such contention. I'm perfectly happy with having been the first person, to my knowledge, to publish it in the West, and having asked Bob, viewing the original print, and with the inscription on the back identifying it as Alix, I'd like to know what others-never having seen it published before-would have done in my place in 1993!
I hope that helps explain the history of the print and the identification of it in 1993!
Greg
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