A watercolour showing Prince Alfred driving with Alexander II at Oranienbaum, the imperial estate on the Gulf of Finland. The two other gentlemen in the carriage are likely to be Major John Cowell, the prince’s tutor, and John Lumley-Savile (1818–96), the chargé d’affaires. There is a distant view of the sea on the right. In this watercolour the vigorous use of pen and ink to depict the horses in the foreground gives a strong sense of movement and the artist has scraped away the blue bodycolour of the sky to depict the clouds above the trees and along the horizon. Inscribed and dated bottom left: ROUTE / d’ORANIENBAUM / AOUT. 1862; signed bottom right: Adolphe CHARLEMAGNE.

Prince Alfred arrived at Oranienbaum on 8 August 1862, two days after his eighteenth birthday. He was serving with the Royal Navy on board HMS St George, which had arrived at the nearby sea port of Kronstadt. He met and dined with Alexander II and his family on 10 August. Alexander, who can be seen here on the right, went with the Prince to Oranienbaum and to the Grand Menshikov Palace, which is just visible through the trees to the left. Queen Victoria had felt that it was ‘advantageous for many reasons’ for the young prince to visit Russia during his service on the St George. Prince Alfred wrote of the kindness with which he was treated during his stay, and Queen Victoria regarded the visit as ‘very successful’.

Adolphe Charlemagne was a painter at the imperial court in St Petersburg. He studied at the Imperial Academy of Arts, before travelling to Munich and Paris, returning in 1861.

Text adapted from Russia, Royalty & the Romanovs, London, 2018