This ceremonial portrait of Emperor Nicholas II, was painted by Nun Emeliana (Batalov) of the Novo-Tikhvinsky Convent in Ekaterinburg, for the Tsar’s coronation in 1896.
Before the 1917 Revolution, it hung in one of the rooms of Nicholas II’s private apartments in the Winter Palace in St Petersburg.
In October 1917, during the assault on the Winter Palace, the portrait was cut by the bayonets of Bolshevik thugs.
In 1991, the portrait was restored, leaving the cuts made by the bayonets as a poignant reminder of the dark days of the Bolshevik Revolution which swept Russia and the monarchy into an abyss.
Today, the portrait hangs in the Museum of Political History of Russia — located in the former mansion of Mathilde Kschessinska — in St. Petersburg.
