Valentin Serov, Coronation of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia (Миропомазание императора Николая Александровича). 1896. Oil on canvas (or wood ?). 43X64cm. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg. Tretyakovskaya Gallery, Moscow
It seems there are two version of this painting. I called Tretyakovskaya Gallery, a woman named Elvira from the “Oil Department” told me that they definitely have the oil version. She referenced different paintings in Novgorod and even Armenia. I think she “didn’t know what she was talking about”. I then spoke to Alexandra in the “Graphics”. She initially though I was a foreign owner of the work and couldn’t understand why I was asking her about the media, after all “the painting is in front of me”, that was funny. Alexandra had the smarts to look it up in the definitive work about Valentin Serov by Igor Grabar published in 1965. She gave me the sizes and the locations from the book . She also pointed out that Tretyakovskaya Gallery’s oil painting was done in the year of the coronation and the gouache-watercolor masterpiece, a year later in 1897.
Valentin Serov, Coronation of Emperor Nicholas II of Russia (Миропомазание императора Николая Александровича). 1897. Mixed media - Gouache and Watercolor on Paper. 36.3X55.5cm. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (?) Click to enlarge.
Both surprisingly tiny sketches prepared for the future commission (both not seen during the Soviet days). It appears that Valentin Serov was never given the actual commission. The first oil sketch is the outline of the general composition and the second gouache-watercolor is easily the miracle of the Russian art.
Let me speculate on why Valentin Serov was never actually commissioned the work. Being the “realist” Serov sketched out what he observed during the coronation. The scene is typical for such occasions. The older handlers literally carry the future Tsar into his role. Based on the depicted likeness of Tsar Nicholas, it’s safe to assume that everyone was recognizable and true to their stature. Her hotness the Empress is the real star of the procession, she is deliberately lit up (with everyone around her looking at the Alix of Hesse AKA Alexandra). You can imagine how the said handlers would disapprove of the composition and instead prefer a traditional God anointed Tsar (Caesar) of the Third Rome mounting above the faceless mass of worshipers (like this crap). Instead Valentin Serov observed a scared young man bowing to the church. Note the crown conspicuously prepared behind the head of the priest, almost concealed.
The anointed, messianic moment of the coronation, the forehead kiss-cross is yet to be revealed as the kiss of death. Less than ten years after the coronation the empire was engulfed in the revolution and just twenty years later Tsar Nicholas was slaughtered with his entire family. He was ascending to the role and the throne sacrificed to the archetypal storm of history. And the very rejection of the Serov’s genius hinted to the future fate of Russia, the country cursed by the stillborn, God-like mortals and blessed with the timeless, cathartic, embryonic art.