A bronze bust of Tsar Alexander II 'the Liberator'

RUSSIA, CIRCA 1880

Details

A bronze bust of Tsar Alexander II 'the Liberator'
Russia, circa 1880
Shoulder length, facing slightly right, wearing a toga, on shaped circular socle with a plaque inscribed in Cyrillic 'Aleksandr.II', on a cylindrical dark green veined marble pedestal on square base with shaped bronze mount decorated with foliage, apparently unmarked
the bust 41in. (104cm.) high; the pedestal 47in. (120cm.) high

Lot Essay

Alexander II, born 17/29 April 1818, was the son of Nicholas I, but of a totally different character. Educated by the poet Zhukovskii, he was instilled with liberal ideas which he carried out from the beginning of his reign in 1855 by immediately recalling from Siberia the exiled survivors of the Decembrist revolt. His reign saw the liberation of the serfs in 1861 and reform of the antiquated legal system. However there was social unrest throughout his reign and he was killed by an assassin's bomb in St. Petersburg on 1/13 March 1881.

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