Alexey Strelkovsky, Portrait of Princess Anna Mikhailovna Obolenskaya, 1863
Signed at mid-right in Cyrillic and dated
Gouache, watercolor and pencil on paper
24 x 18 1/2 in. (61 x 47 cm)
Inv. no. ab_31523
The young woman in a dress richly embroidered with gold threads and a red diadem is Princess Anna Mikhailovna Obolenskaya (1837-1909), a maid-of-honor to Empress Maria Alexandrovna. In this delicate portrait by Alexey Strelkovsky (1819-1904), she is shown in ceremonial court dress and a diamond-set chiffre with the initials MA, signifying her service to the reigning Maria Alexandrovna, wife of Alexander II. Obolenskaya assumed this prestigious post in 1856 before her marriage to Prince Grigory Khilkov (1835-1885).
Her family played important roles at court. Her father Prince Mikhail Andreevich Obolensky (1806-1873) can be seen behind her in the 1846 portrait by Karl Briullov now in Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery. The prince was a historian and collector who served as a state archivist and chairman of the commission overseeing the restoration of the 16th-century Chamber of the Romanov Boyars in the Moscow Kremlin. Obolensky’s scholarly interests are front and center in the image: he is dressed in the silk caftan and fur-lined cloak of a boyar and historic treasures, including a helmet of the medieval period, rest on the table behind him. The 1863 portrait in formal court wear was undoubtedly commissioned in honor of her engagement and marriage, which took place that year.
Her husband Prince Grigory Khilkov shared her family’s historical interests. In addition to serving as a Master of Court Ceremonials, he was a member of the Archaeographic Commission overseeing publication of Russian historical primary sources. The couple later collaborated on publishing her father’s collection of Slavonic and Russian manuscripts. After her husband’s untimely death, Princess Khilkova departed for his lands in Kamianets-Podilskyi where she built richly appointed stone churches in Shutnivtsi and Dvozhka in present-day Ukraine.