2-588-174 - The Art Collector/Heritage-Images

'Portrait of the Tsesarevich Alexander Nikolaevich on Horseback', 1850s. Detail. The eldest son of Tsar Nicholas I, Alexander II (1818-1881) succeeded his father in 1855. Known as 'The Liberator', he emancipated Russia's serfs in 1861. The pace of reform under Alexander's rule was too slow for some, however, and on 13 March 1881 he was assassinated in St Petersburg by a bomb thrown by a nihilist student. Found in the collection of The Hermitage, St Petersburg.