Nicholas II portrait found behind Lenin
November 20 2016
Video: Russia Today
After the Russian Revolution, artist Vladislav Izmailovich was tasked with painting many portraits of Lenin. When conservators recently repaired one of his works, at the St. Petersburg’s Stieglitz Art and Industry Academy, they discovered that in one case he had re-used a portrait of Nicholas II. The Lenin portrait was not painted directly over Nicholas, but on the reverse of the canvas. The Nicholas portrait was covered up, but only with 'washable paint', and thus able to be removed decades later in a different political climate. Comrade Izmailovich, AHN salutes you!
