3-070-522 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Emperor Alexander II. of Russia after death, 1881. The Russian Tsar was assassinated in March 1881. 'The photograph of the Emperor's body, or what remained of it, was taken immediately after the process of embalming, at the Winter Palace. It is copied in our Engraving. The features are seen in profile, and it is the left side of the face which is exposed. The sparse hair is carefully brushed away from the temples, the grizzled moustache and whiskers are carefully trimmed and combed; but the eyes are sunken, and there seems to have been a wound on the cheek, the marks of which were partially concealed by art. The head reposed on a pillow of white satin; the body was clothed in the green uniform tunic of the Preobrajenski Guard Regiment, with massive epaulettes of gold bullion. The right hand, partly bent, rested peacefully on the breast, close to the medallion of some image sacred to the Russo-Greek communion; but with this head and torso ends, they say, all that remained of the shattered body of Alexander II. From the trunk downwards the destruction caused by the explosion had been such as to leave nothing for the skill of the embalmer'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.