Alexander II of Russia

Alexander II of Russia, dated 1881 and now in the Tretyakov Gallery, was almost certainly a posthumous portrait painted in the year of the Tsar's assassination — an event of shattering significance in Russian political history. Alexander II was killed on March 13, 1881, by a bomb thrown by a member of the revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) in Saint Petersburg. His death ended the reform era and inaugurated the reactionary policies of his son Alexander III. A posthumous portrait commission for the Tretyakov Gallery — the national collection — in this year would have served as an official commemorative image, presenting the assassinated Tsar-Liberator as a historical figure now elevated to the status of martyr-ruler. Makovsky was well-placed to receive such a commission given his long association with the highest circles of Russian society.

Oil on canvas with the formal grand-manner portrait treatment appropriate to an imperial subject and a commemorative function. The posthumous nature of the commission would have required Makovsky to work from photographs, death masks, and other visual documents to reconstruct the Tsar's appearance.