Russian School, 19th Century, In The Manner Of Karl Bryullov — Portrait Of A Child With A Dog,

RUSSIAN SCHOOL, 19TH CENTURY, IN THE MANNER OF KARL BRYULLOV (1799–1852)
Portrait of a child with a Small Dog
Oil on oval canvas.
H_50 cm W_43 cm
Relined; old restorations and customary wear.

Provenance: Personal collection of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia (1882–1960), sister of Tsar Nicholas II, bearing inventory labels with her initials on the reverse.

Executed in the Russian academic and Romantic tradition of the nineteenth century—marked by the graceful style of Karl Bryullov—this oval painting depicts a child embracing a small spaniel, a classic motif symbolising innocence and fidelity. Bryullov was renowned for his elegant portraits of children and his accomplished depictions of animals.
Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna

Daughter of Tsar Alexander III and younger sister of the last Emperor, Nicholas II, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was raised at Gatchina Palace. In 1901, she entered into an arranged marriage with Prince Peter of Oldenburg, which proved deeply unhappy and was never consummated. During the First World War, she served as a nurse at the headquarters of the Russian Army and settled in Kiev, where her marriage was eventually annulled by the Tsar.
In 1916, she married for a second time the love of her life, cavalry captain Nikolai Kulikovsky. She narrowly escaped the massacres of the Russian Revolution by fleeing first to Crimea and then to the Caucasus. She subsequently went into exile in Denmark, where she joined her mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna.
After the Second World War, faced with the threat posed by the Soviet regime, she emigrated with her family to Canada. There, she led a quiet life as an artist and farmer until her death in 1960. Throughout this journey, she preserved a number of intimate works from her family heritage, carefully catalogued on the reverse with inventory labels bearing her initials. Her provenance is consistent with documented objects from her personal collection, which have appeared on the international art market