The oil painting collection of the National Pushkin Museum includes a portrait of Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya by an unknown artist.

Maria Nikolaevna Volkonskaya, one of the daughters of General Nikolay Raevsky, married Major General Prince Sergey Grigoryevich Volkonsky in January 1825. A year later, he was arrested as a Decembrist and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. Volkonskaya followed her husband to Siberia.

Maria Volkonskaya wrote about Pushkin and his first trip, which he made with the Raevsky family in the summer of 1820, “I remember how during this trip, not far from Taganrog, I was riding in a carriage with Sophia, our Englishwoman, as well as our Russian nanny and governess. When we saw the sea, we ordered to stop, got out of the carriage and rushed to admire the sea with the entire party. It was covered with waves, and, not suspecting that the poet was following us, I began to amuse myself by running after the wave, and when it came close to me, I ran away from it. Pushkin found that this picture was very graceful, and, poetizing a childish prank, wrote charming poems; I was only 15 years old at the time:

Later, in the poem ‘The Fountain of Bakhchysarai’, he said” …Thine eyes of love appear more bright / Than noonday’s beam, more dark than night’. In fact, he adored only his muse and poetized everything he saw.”

The last meeting of Maria Volkonskaya and Pushkin took place on December 26, 1826 in Moscow,

The National Pushkin Museum presents a portrait of General Nikolay Nikolayevich Raevsky by an unknown artist painted from the original canvas by the English artist George Dawe.

Ten years later, in a letter to Alexander von Benckendorff, he would call the general a “great man”.

Nikolay Raevsky began his military career under Catherine II. He was dismissed from service under Paul I but reinstated by Alexander I. Under Nicholas I, Raevsky became a member of the State Council. In the portrait, the stars of the highest orders are almost hidden by a greatcoat, which emphasizes the rare modesty of the general, noted by his contemporaries and highlighted by the artist.

Nikolay Karamzin, Vasily Zhukovsky, as well as Pushkin’s superior in the service, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ioannis Kapodistrias, rushed to help the young rake. As a result, Pushkin was transferred to Yekaterinoslav to serve under Lieutenant General Ivan Inzov, the trustee of the colonists of the south of Russia and the governor of Bessarabia. When Pushkin arrived, he swam in the Dnieper and subsequently fell ill with a fever. General Raevsky with his son Nikolay and two daughters, Maria and Sofia, were traveling to the Caucasus at that time and, with Inzov’s permission, took Pushkin with them. Thus, Pushkin made the first great journey in his life with the family of General Raevsky. This trip lasted four months, the Caucasus and Crimea were ahead.