Original 1899 carte-de-visite portrait from the personal circle of the future prominent Ukrainian architect Pavel Fedotovich Alyoshin (1881–1961).
The photograph depicts a young man who was a fellow student / classmate of Pavel Alyoshin at the Kiev First Real School (Киевское 1-е реальное училище).
The reverse is particularly important, being almost completely covered with an extensive original handwritten dedication addressed personally to “P. Alyoshin” (П. Алешину) and dated:Kiev, March 23, 1899.
The inscription begins with a quotation from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 7:21:“Не всякий, говорящий Мне: Господи! Господи! войдет в Царство Небесное…”The writer then explains that he is departing from the usual custom of inscriptions exchanged with portrait photographs. He describes three kinds of such inscriptions — formal, humorous, and those expressing sincere feeling — and writes that, toward a person for whom he has friendly feelings, a formal inscription would be inappropriate.The dedication concludes with the particularly personal thought that rather than expressing his feelings merely in words, he prefers that they be demonstrated “in deeds, not in words”:“…убедиться в моем чувстве предоставляю на деле, а не на словах.”
The photograph dates from 1899, the year Pavel Alyoshin completed his studies at the Kiev First Real School, before continuing his architectural education in St. Petersburg.
This makes the photograph an interesting surviving document from Alyoshin's student years in Kiev, preserving not only the portrait of one of his fellow students but also a substantial personal message reflecting the tradition of exchanging photographic portraits among classmates at the end of their studies.
Date: March 23, 1899Location: Kiev (Kyiv)Associated person: Pavel Fedotovich Alyoshin (1881–1961)School: Kiev First Real SchoolFormat: Carte de Visite (CDV)Dimensions: 62 × 104 mm (2.44 × 4.09 in)
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