Mikhail Lermontov (1814-1841) and Prince Nikolai Dolgoruky (1792-1847) Theresa von Klupffell. Landscape, circa 1840.

8 x 15 cm. watercolour on paper, affixed to paper. 19.2 x 24 cm inscribed in German: ‘Gezeichnet von Fraulein Theresa von Klupffell’ On the reverse, Lermontov’s poem «Prayer» (In Life’s Hard Times...) Inscribed in French in the left margin:» Souvenir du prince Nicolas Dolgorouky 1842» The poem Prayer was written Lermontov in 1839 and first published after his death in 1842. In 1842 a sad event happened in the life of Prince Dolgoruky (1792-1847), the Adjutant-General, Governor-General of Lithuania and Malorossiya. His son Aleksandr Dolgoruky (1819-1842), an officer of Life Guards Hussar Regiment and one of M.Lermontov’s comrades-in-arms, was killed in a duel. Dolgoruky and Lermontov were close friends. Both were members of St Petersburg society «Les Seize», and took part in expeditions to the Caucasus in 1840, Alexander Dolgoruky met Lermontov in Pyatigorsk in the last months of his life. Albums with drawings by Dolgoruky, under which Lermontov made poetical inscriptions, were preserved. The last year of his life Dolgoruky served in Tsarskoye Selo. Since the beginning of the 1840s the family of General V.F. Klupfel (1796-1885), director of the Pavlovsk Cadet Corps, lived in Pavlovsk.