Prince Nikita Alexandrovich: An Imperial Baptismal Presentation Icon of Saints Nikita, Xenia, and Alexander Michael Ovchinnikov, St. Petersburg, circa 1900 8-1/2 x 12-1/8 x 0-3/4 inches (21.6 x 30.8 x 1.9 cm) (open) 1748 grams (gross) PROVENANCE: Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich and Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna; Prince Nikita Alexandrovich; Prince Alexander Nikitch Romanoff; Princess Maria Romanoff. This icon may be counted among the seven ordered by Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna and her husband, Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich to commemorate the births of each of their children. These skladen, or icons of the patron saints of each of their children, were ordered in advance of the births, and the side panels prepared ahead, with the central panel left blank in anticipation of the birth and the announcement of the sex and name of the child. Another icon from this rare group, the related baptismal icon of their eldest son Prince Andrei Alexandrovich of Russia, was offered Sotheby's, London, Russian Works of Art, Fabergé and Icons, November 25, 2014, Lot 522. Prince Nikita Alexandrovich was born January 4, 1900 at the family palace on the Moika Canal in St. Petersburg. Grand Duchess Xenia's sister Grand Duchess Olga called to send her congratulations but was foiled by the unreliable telephone lines; "...it was too stupid last night – the telephone muddled everything!" she wrote on a card she hand-painted with festive images, "...I congratulate you with dear baby Nikita!' (cf. Van der Kiste, J, & Hall, C. Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II, The History Press, 2004, p. 82). Prince Nikita was educated at home, and then attended the Imperial Corps of Pages. He lived a privileged life, spending time with his elder siblings Princess Irina (later princess Yusupov) and brothers the princes Andrei and Feodor, his younger brothers, Dmitri, Rostislav, and Vasili. The robust family of active boys stood in contrast to the family of Nicholas II and his wife, with four girls and an heir sick with hemophilia. In 1917, leaving the chaotic capital of Petrograd for the last time, Prince Nikita traveled with his mother to their Crimean estate of Ai-Todor. Nikita traveled with this icon, and the prince kept it with him his entire life. The icon was with Nikita Nikitich when he left Russia in 1918 on the HMS Marlborough together with his grandmother, the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, his parents, and a majority of members of the former dynasty. In emigration, Prince Nikita never took on foreign citizenship, and held a Nansen or "stateless" passport until he died. In 1924 he married Countess Maria Illarionovna Woronzow-Dashkoff (Russian, 1903-1997), a fellow émigré from the highest Russian aristocracy, and settled together in the south of France, were they had two sons, Prince Nikita and Prince Alexander. After the outbreak of World War II, Prince and Princess Nikita found themselves unable to return to London, and they lived in Rome and Czechoslovakia until the advance of the Soviet Army prompted them to return to Paris, and thence to Monterey, California, where they lived from 1946 until the 1960s when they relocated to New York. After years in commerce, Prince Nikita and his wife retired to the south of France, where he died at Cannes in 1974, and was buried next to his parents in the Russian cemetery of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin next to his parents. On Prince Nikita's death the icon was inherited by his son Prince Alexander. Prince Alexander kept his father's icon with him until his death in London in 2002. Though other Imperial baptismal icons have appeared on the market, these are usually third-party commissions by disinterested parties such as Nobility Assemblies or merchant's guilds. The offered lot is one of very few such icons commissioned by Romanoff family members for themselves, and one of the even fewer numbers which then remained in Romanoff hands from before the Revolution until the present day. Estate of Princess Maria Romanoff HID03101062020 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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