Aleksey Mikhailovich Zhemchuzhnikov abandoned his brilliant career as a civil servant and devoted himself entirely to poetry, but his literary destiny was not an easy one. He began to write poems in his childhood but they first appeared in print towards the end of his life. Prutkov’s parodies brought more fame to Kozma than to Zhemchuzhnikov. The poet’s works, while appearing in print, were rare. It was for various reasons: living abroad, where he did not feel inspired to write; illness and death of his wife — there were long pauses in work. The inscription on the back of the cabinet card reads “Photographer of His Highness Prince Chernogorsky’s Court E. Mrozovskaya. St.-Petersburg, Nevsky, near the Police Bridge, number 20”.
Elena Lukinichna Mrozovskaya, or Hélène de Mrozovski (née Knyazhevich), was one of the first Russian professional photographers of Montenegrin origin. Mrozovskaya’s brother, Vladimir Pavlovich Mrozovsky, was a mechanical engineer and artist, and her uncle Joseph Ivanovich Mrozovsky was Military Governor General of Moscow from 1915 to 1917.
Mrozovskaya studied photography at the Russian Technical Society, completing the course in 1892. She then continued her studies with the French photographer and caricaturist Nadar in Paris. Returning to Saint Petersburg she opened a studio there in 1894. She died in 1941 in Repino (a district of Saint Petersburg).
Elena Mrozovskaya photographed many famous people: Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Matilda Kshesinskaya, Vera Komissarzhevskaya and other famous artists, writers and actors of the time. Mrozovskaya won a bronze medal at the Stockholm General Art and Industry Exhibition and a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Paris, and participated in an international exhibition in Liège. One of her photographs, a hand-painted image of Princess Olga Orlova wearing a kokoshnik at a ball in the Winter Palace in 1903, is in the Hermitage collection. Elena Mrozovskaya’s shaded photograph “Portrait of a Girl in Malorussian Costume” is in the collection of the Moscow House of Photography. Many of Mrozovskaya’s photographs are in the collection of the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire and several more are in the collection of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.
Elena Lukinichna Mrozovskaya, or Hélène de Mrozovski (née Knyazhevich), was one of the first Russian professional photographers of Montenegrin origin. Mrozovskaya’s brother, Vladimir Pavlovich Mrozovsky, was a mechanical engineer and artist, and her uncle Joseph Ivanovich Mrozovsky was Military Governor General of Moscow from 1915 to 1917.
Mrozovskaya studied photography at the Russian Technical Society, completing the course in 1892. She then continued her studies with the French photographer and caricaturist Nadar in Paris. Returning to Saint Petersburg she opened a studio there in 1894. She died in 1941 in Repino (a district of Saint Petersburg).
Elena Mrozovskaya photographed many famous people: Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Matilda Kshesinskaya, Vera Komissarzhevskaya and other famous artists, writers and actors of the time. Mrozovskaya won a bronze medal at the Stockholm General Art and Industry Exhibition and a silver medal at the World Exhibition in Paris, and participated in an international exhibition in Liège. One of her photographs, a hand-painted image of Princess Olga Orlova wearing a kokoshnik at a ball in the Winter Palace in 1903, is in the Hermitage collection. Elena Mrozovskaya’s shaded photograph “Portrait of a Girl in Malorussian Costume” is in the collection of the Moscow House of Photography. Many of Mrozovskaya’s photographs are in the collection of the Saint Petersburg Conservatoire and several more are in the collection of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art.
