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Post by Woland on May 2, 2020 7:09:13 GMT -5
Alexander Ostrovsky was a prominent Russian playwright during the 19th century, writing 47 plays during his lifetime.
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Post by Woland on May 2, 2020 11:33:50 GMT -5
Princess Zinaida Yusupova was the last of the noble Yusupov family, the sole heiress to a vast private fortune in pre-revolutionary Russia, consisting of 4 palaces in St. Petersburg, 3 in Moscow, 37 estates across Russia, factories, mills, oil fields and the 2nd largest collection of historical jewels in Russia (the Romanovs were first). She married a lieutenant in the Horse Guards in 1882, she served as personal assistant to the last two Empresses of Russia. Unfortunately the Russian Revolution forced her to exile in Rome with her husband, losing all her vast wealth (the Bolsheviks seized and sold almost all her prized jewels), after her husband died she moved to Paris, dying in 1939. Of her two sons who survived childhood, one was killed in a duel while the other murdered Rasputin.
This portrait dates to 1894 when Zinaida was 33 years old, wearing the "La Pelegrina pearl", formerly owned by King Philip II of Spain.
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Post by Woland on May 3, 2020 12:17:50 GMT -5
Sophia Alexeyevna ruled as regent of Russia from 1682-1689, at a time when noble women were usually kept in the background, locked up in the terem away from politics and the public eye. Her political scheming stemmed from wanting her younger brother Ivan V to reign instead of her half-brother Peter I (The Great). Alas, as Ivan's ineptitude continued and Peter I grew in confidence and age, the military switched allegiance from Sophia to Peter, she was forced to step down. Peter had her banished to a Convent before being crowned Tsar. Another attempt was made to place her on the throne when Peter was on his "Grand Embassy": he had the rebels hanged outside her convent window as a lesson to her. This portrait shows her 1 year into her exile in the convent.
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Post by Woland on May 3, 2020 18:28:30 GMT -5
Emilia Francis Strong also known as Lady Dilke, was an art critic during the 19th century, she was also president of the Women's Trade League Union from 1886 until her death in 1904.
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Post by Woland on May 4, 2020 10:41:23 GMT -5
St. Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584), archbishop of Milan and figure of the Counter-Reformation during the 16th Century. During an outbreak of plague and famine, he organised hospitals, put himself into debt to provide food for the poor and gave last communion to the dying. He was venerated as a saint in 1610.
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Post by Woland on May 4, 2020 13:45:51 GMT -5
Count Vladimir Adlerberg was a Russian general and later Director General of the Post Office. He fought in Napoleon's invasion of Russia, the Russo-Turkish wars and was backed by Tsar Nicholas I during his autocratic reign.
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Post by Woland on May 4, 2020 16:00:26 GMT -5
Ekaterina Teleshyova was a ballet dancer at St. Petersburg's Bolshoi Theatre (it closed down in 1886).
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Post by Woland on May 4, 2020 18:10:36 GMT -5
Rudolf II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1576 until his death in 1612. He was into astrology and alchemy, a patron of the arts, later became a recluse and has even been accused of laying the groundwork for the Thirty Years War thanks to his ineffectual rule. This ingenious portrait by Giuseppe Arcimboldo depicts him as Vertumnus, the Roman God of metamorphoses in nature & life.
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Post by Woland on May 5, 2020 8:18:38 GMT -5
Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861) is Ukraine's national poet, also dabbled in painting and etching. From 1847-1857 he was exiled to various places, although he was assigned to two expeditions to sketch landscapes. He also spent 7 years in the penal fortress of Novopetrovsk (now called Fort-Shevchenko, on the Caspian shore in Kazakhstan). Only allowed to return to his beloved Ukraine in 1859, he worked on more poems and paintings until his death, just a week before the Emancipation of the Serfs.
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Post by Woland on May 6, 2020 6:42:57 GMT -5
Jane Stanhope (née Fleming) became Countess of Harrington upon marrying Viscount Petersham, she served as lady of the bedchamber to Queen Charlotte (George III's wife). This painting was made by Joshua Reynolds just before her marriage.
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