Сarl Lemokh was born in Moscow in 1841 in a family of a music teacher. Having received his art education at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, he continued it at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. For sketches and drawings, the Academy Council awarded him two small and two large silver medals “For achievements in drawing”. In 1863, the artist was awarded the Small Gold Medal for the painting “Moses Striking Water from the Rock”. Lemokh was a member of the Artists’ Artel (society) and was one of the founders of the Association of Traveling Exhibitions.

While still a member of the Artel, Сarl Lemokh became a drawing teacher for the emperor’s children.

The collection “The Old Mansion” contains Lemokh’s painting “Children at the Piano”. The canvas features the artist’s favorite imagery, but, unlike in many of his paintings, the children here are not peasants, but from the upper classes. Researchers managed to establish that the artist painted the children of Emperor Alexander III — Grand Duchess Xenia and Grand Duke Michael.

For a long time, this painting was in the Anichkov Palace in St. Petersburg. On the reverse side of the frame, there is a sticker that says, “An. P. Room No. 172 of Her Majesty”. The year that the picture was painted coincides with the time of Lemokh’s pedagogical activity at the Russian court. The canvas depicts one of the children’s rooms of the Anichkov Palace. At that time, the emperor lived there with his family.

The artist meticulously outlined the details of the interior and the clothes of the children. This established the picture not only as a work of art but also as an artifact of the era.

Lemokh managed to convey a brief moment of the happy and serene childhood of the emperor’s children. The fate of Grand Duke Michael was tragic; he was shot near Perm in 1918. Princess Xenia, along with her mother and other relatives, emigrated abroad.

The painting was donated to Arkhangelsk by the State Russian Museum in 1930.