Emilia Lvovna Prakhova (at birth Emilia Maria Clementine Lestel ; April 20, 1849 , St. Petersburg - March 1, 1927 , Kiev ) - the wife of Adriana Prahova , pianist, student of Ferenc Liszt . It contained a salon that was visited by people of art who worked on the decoration of the Vladimir Cathedral in Kiev [1] .
| Emilia Lvovna Prahova | |
|---|---|
| Emilia Maria Clementine Lestel | |
 Figure MA Vrubel , Italian pencil , 1885. | |
| Birth name | Emilia Maria Clementine Lestel |
| Date of Birth | April 20, 1849 |
| Place of Birth | St. Petersburg |
| Date of death | March 1, 1927 (77 years) |
| Place of death | Kiev |
| Allegiance |  France →  Russian Empire →  the USSR |
| Occupation | |
| Children | Nikolay , Elena , Olga. |
Content
Biography
Born April 20, 1849 in St. Petersburg. She was a citizen of France. According to rumors, she was the illegitimate daughter of War Minister Milutin [2] and this was precisely the reason for the career success of her husband and the huge funds for his projects.
At the age of 16, Emilia married art professor Adrian Prahova and traveled with her husband to many countries, visiting the most famous museums. She graduated from the conservatory in piano and took lessons from Liszt himself.
March 15, 1889 adopted Orthodoxy in Kiev.
The portraits of Emilia Lvovna were written by I. E. Repin , V. A. Kotarbinsky , M. A. Vrubel . It was Emilia Lvovna who inspired Vrubel when writing the famous icon “The Virgin and Child ” for the altar of the Church of St. Cyril in Kiev [1] [3] .
In the Prakhov family, there was a direct “physical evidence” - a piece of paper with drawings. On one side, Vrubel made a pencil sketch of Emilia Lvovna’s face from life, on the other, he depicted the same face in the guise of Our Lady idealized [3] .
Before her death, Prakhova asked her daughter Olga to destroy all Vrubel's letters to Emilia Lvovna, and the request was fulfilled.
She died on March 1, 1927. She was buried in Kiev at the Lukyanovsky cemetery (station number 25, row 11, place 27).
Contemporaries Memories
She was incredibly intelligent and sharp-tongued, educated and ... eccentric. Once a guest annoyed her with something - the sculptor Antokolsky's wife, so Emilia Lvovna took and poured a bucket of water on her, can you imagine? [3]
Emilia Lvovna was a lady with a fool. In our family, they knew that it was impossible to upset a granny during a family meal - she could, without batting an eye, pour tea by the collar of someone sitting or break a cup on the floor. She was a rather powerful person - a kind of home Saltychikha. Emilia Lvovna ruined the life of his daughter Elena. Then little-known artist Mikhail Nesterov was in love with her and even allegedly proposed to her. But Emilia Lvovna resisted, saying that Lola deserves a better game. As a result, Elena never married [4] . By the way, Varvara the Great Martyr in the right-hand iconostasis of the Vladimir Cathedral was painted by Nesterov and Elena Prahova. Upon learning of this, the wife of the then Kiev Governor General broke out: “What am I to do, go to pray at Lelka Prakhov ?!”
- Memories of the granddaughter A. N. Prakhova .
Family
- Husband - Prakhov, Adrian Viktorovich (1846-1916) - Russian art historian, archeologist and art critic.
- Son - Prakhov, Nikolai Adrianovich (1873-1957) - artist and art historian.
- Daughters - Elena (1871–1948); Olga (1879–?), In marriage to Alyabyev.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Prokopenko V. The power of the demon (inaccessible link) // Mirror of the week No. 11, March 17, 2001.
- ↑ Domiteeva V. Vrubel - Young Guard: - 2014 P. 512 ISBN 978-5-235-03676-5
- ↑ 1 2 3 Onguryan O. When the image of the Mother of God written by Vrubel appeared in the Cyril church, the people of Kiev recognized in him the features of a certain lady in Kiev // Facts , 01/04/2002.
- ↑ From Nesterov's memoirs it is clear that the wedding did not take place, because at that moment his mistress was pregnant and gave birth to a child, as the bride's family found out.