This ceremonial portrait of Emperor Nicholas II (1896) by Ilya Savich Galkin (1860-1915), has a very interesting story behind it . . .
In 1924, the Soviet artist Vladimir Izmailovich was ordered to cover the portrait of the Tsar with several layers of paint and then paint a portrait of Lenin on the back.
The lost portrait of Nicholas II was discovered in 2013, during the restoration of the portrait of Lenin. The Tsar’s portrait had been «hidden» for more than 90 years beneath water-soluble paint on the back of Lenin’s portrait.
Galkin’s ceremonial portrait of Emperor Nicholas II is currently on display in the ‘Portrait Gallery of the Romanov Dynasty’, situated in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.
