Róka Enikő szerk.: Zichy Mihály, a „rajzoló fejedelem” (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2007/4)

II. Sándor vadászjelenetes kártyái GALINA A. PRINCEVA

Hunting Scenes on the Cards of Tsar Alexander II GALINA A PRINTSEVA As a court painter, Zichy was charged with painting the events of the tsar's hunting. Alexander II was a passionate hunter and his court painter would join him on his huntings so as to make sketches on the spot and work them out more elaborately afterwards. Zichy depicted court huntings in life-like manner intertwined with many humorous scenes, therefore he often called them humouros sketches. Of these, a series of 52 aquarelles held in the Hermitage is of special value and constitutes a whole packet of cards. These aquarelles were painted on cardboards of real card size (90 by 55 mm) with the same chequered reverse sides. The upper part of each aquarelle has a miniature card while the rest of the card shows a scene of the bear hunting of Lisino in January 1860. At the time of winter hunting the monarch would usually leave St Petersburg Tuesday evening. He would travel by train, then by sleigh in the woods lit by torches as far as to his hunting lodge. The following morning he would leave for the scene of hunting with his entourage, have breakfast, then he would go hunting. The tsar would give a signal and beaters were supposed to rouse and drive bears to the firing line with the help of dogs. In the course of successful huntings Alexander II would normally kill two or three bears a day. When hunting was over, the monarch had lunch in his hunting lodge while the hunters' orchestra of his court was playing music. Then he would return to St Petersburg around ten or eleven o'clock pm. By all means, the visit of the tsar was of utmost importance to the peasants of neighbouring villages. The monarch exchanged words with them, gave them money, received presents and accepted applications from them, and those peasants that had been helping with the hunting preparations were treated to a dinner. Although the cards show various scenes of court hunting, the monarch cannot be seen on them unlike the grand dukes. Two of diamonds shows the permanent hunting companions of the Emperor, his brothers Grand Dukes Mikhail and Nikolai, as they are pointing out the scene of the hunting on the map of Lisino forest range, (fig. 166.) On other cards Mikhail Nikolayevich is frightening a peasant girl with the muzzle of a fox (king of diamonds), or is burning himself with a hot pirog at breakfast in the winter forest (king of spades), playing snooker (ten of spades, fig. 167.), and on the way back from the hunting he is driving the horse (three of hearts). Apart from the Grand Duke, it was Count Pavel Karlovich Ferzen, Master of the Hunt of the Imperial Court between 1852 and 1870, that most frequently appeared on the cards. Zichy's relationship to Ferzen can best be characterized by a picture entitled Count Ferzen and His Shadow in which he presented himself as a shadow standing behind the Count and drawing a picture (six of diamonds). Ferzen was his major commissioner and critic as is shown in the scene of Ferzen and My Drawing (two of hearts). Tsar Alexander II was mostly accompanied by the same people whenever he went hunting. AdjutantGeneral Nikolai Alexandrovich Ogariov was always present. According to drawings made by Zichy, he was a benevolent, but very fat man who would often get in funny situations. We can see Ogariov falling out of the sleigh onto the snow (four of spades, fig. 172.), or cooking and burning macaroni with General Lambert, because he was unable to make it to lunch (three of clubs, fig. 173.). He is also shown among fellow hunters who are sleeping on folding field beds, but Piotr Karlovich Merder, a good friend of the monarch, is desperately covering his ears beacuse of Ogariov's terrible snoring (jack of spades, fig. 174.).